


Desire: Deep, Dark and Deadly

by dharkephoenyx



Series: Fae/Glee [1]
Category: Glee
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Supernatural, F/F, F/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-07-10
Updated: 2012-08-19
Packaged: 2017-11-09 14:07:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 56,704
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/456327
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dharkephoenyx/pseuds/dharkephoenyx
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>See, when she decided to escape from New York, she was just hoping for some peace and quiet before they had to move again. She didn't expect some tall, beautiful, broken stranger whose mind she could not read and who smells even better than heaven. AU Finn/Rachel, ensemble, Rated M.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. prologue

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: This came to me in the shower while I was washing my hair. I have dreadlocks, so it took me a good hour to get thru, ha! And so, I'm trying my hand a supernatural fic that has undertones of Twilight, Lost Girl and some Anne Rice and other forms of mythology thrown in with my own creative nonsense. It's Finchel centric, Quartie/Faberry/ Artchel friendships and appearances by everyone else. I predict some sexytimes so I'm dropping this in the M bucket.
> 
> Disclaimer: Glee, isn't mine.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dark night, beautiful stranger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Finchel centric, Faberry /Quartie /Artchel friendships and appearances with everyone else. I predict some sexytimes so I'm dropping this in the M bucket.

Midnight in Ohio is beautiful.

She loves this time of the day. Usually everyone is fast asleep and the night is silent, just the sound of the breeze in the trees, crickets and the animals that come out at night. Back in New York, the city that never sleeps, she didn't have this. Car horns, blaring music, chatter and the constant foot traffic was ever present. It's not that she minded the city, she's lived there all her life, but she just wanted a change: a change in pace, a change in her life, a change of scenery, just somewhere where she could just escape her reality for a while.

She flits to the second level of the bleachers, her quiet solace from everything else. They're at OSU this time around, and Quinn and Artie are somewhere entertaining themselves, waiting for daylight. The campus is gorgeous, huge in comparison to her last stint at Syracuse U and she finds that football is quickly becoming her favourite sport, well, next to hockey.

She's midway through Tolstoy's _Anna Karenina_ (she's read it several times and still does not understand it) when the smell of cinnamon and man permeates the air. She raises her head and looks around and immediately spies someone jogging slowly along the opposite side of the track.

He's tall, his steps sure but heavy as he pounds the dirt from one end to the next. His hair is a dark brown, messy as it sticks to his sweaty forehead and when he stops, wiping his brow, his breath misting in the cool night air, his whiskey-coloured eyes are hurt and sad as he looks around him.

She's frozen in her seat as she stares across at him, brows creased because he managed to surprise her. Because, he's been running for quite some time; his breathing is haggard as she stares. She reaches out to him, curious as to the broken look on his face.

It's silent around her, except for the crickets and birds chirping in the trees behind her.

She frowns.

He stands with his hands on his hips, breathing staring across at the lone figure in the stands, a confused look on his face. He looks around him and brings his eyes back in her direction and she knows he's curious as to why there's someone sitting on the bleachers, at midnight.

Again, she tries to get a read on him and sighs in frustration at his silence.

He shrugs and then bows his head, pumping his legs as he again moves, arms pistoning beside him as he rockets up and down the track. For someone as big as he is, he's quick.

Now she's even more curious about him.

She stands and moves quickly to the bleachers on his side, hiding in the darkness. His scent is stronger now, clean and manly, his muskiness soaking the air around him. It disarms her, her mouth watering as his smell wraps around her. She has to stop her breathing the longer she stands this close to him, her eyes taking in everything about him, from the marks on his jaw, to the ugly pink scar on his lower leg.

She wants to know how he got it.

She doesn't understand her interest in this stranger, this pull she feels towards him. She watches him as he runs up and down the track, his face sad and forlorn as he does.

See, when she decided to escape from New York, she was hoping for some peace and quiet before they moved elsewhere.

Not some tall, beautiful, broken stranger whose mind she could not read who smells even better than heaven.

She leaves him to his running, disappearing into the darkness and back towards home.

...


	2. one

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Rachel meets Finn and gets herself in trouble and him out of it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I can tell you, this is nothing like I've ever written (or read) and is a nice combination of several genres of fiction, you're bound to recognize something from somewhere in this. Mentions of sex, drug use and some darkness in this. You've been warned.
> 
> Disclaimer: Glee? Not mine

_Spill._

She ignores Quinn, dropping  _Anna Karenina_ on the entry table with a thud and putting her shoes neatly underneath.

It's her eleventh night by the bleachers, watching the silent stranger as he runs, his face sad as he does. He never speaks. He goes to the bleachers at midnight every night, runs for an hour and then slinks away, back to wherever he hides during the day. She doesn't follow him though. She wants to know who he is but she doesn't want to find out like a stalker.

_Rachel. You've gone out every night for the past week and a half. And you always come back smelling like man. Who is he?_

She turns and glares at Quinn. They go through this every night she comes in.

"It doesn't concern you."

Quinn squeals happily and claps her hands. "She speaks! I knew that if I kept it up long enough I'd get you to talk! So, who is he?"

Artie strolls in with a can of Pringles in his hand. Sour cream and onion. He sniffs the can and shuffles it around. "I bet this tastes delicious."

Rachel raises an eyebrow then laughs at him. Artie is always willing to try anything at least three times, never mind the stomachache he's guaranteed afterwards. She flits over and steals the can from him, popping a handful of chips in her mouth.

"I hate you." They both deadpan and she chuckles merrily, winking at them as she eats more.

"What doesn't concern her?" Artie sighs, glaring playfully at her.

"Rachel met a boy."

She rolls her eyes and stalks to the kitchen for a bottle of water and of course, they follow her.

"Wow, Rach. Really? Who is he?"

"I don't know."

Matching confused looks flash across Artie & Quinn's faces.

"Huh?"

"Didn't you check?"

She bites her lip and shrugs. "I can't."

It's silent in the kitchen and she walks out towards her room, snatching  _Anna Karenina_ as she passes by. She hasn't actually read it on her excursions out to the football field, and she needs something to fill the next couple of hours. And she also needs new books. She suspects she'll be going to the field a lot, and if she brings just the one book Quinn and Artie are bound to notice.

Quinn appears in front of her as she reaches to push her bedroom door open.

"What do you mean you  _can't_  read him?"

She gives a heavy sigh and pushes her friend aside. "Exactly that. He's silent. Not a peep. Zilch. Nada. No thoughts whatsoever. Completely mum to me."

 _Is that good or bad?_  Artie asks silently.

She turns around, shrugs and bites her lip. "I don't know. I've never met anyone like that before."

"What does he look like?"

She fights her blush, disappointed when Quinn claps her hand in glee again. She reminds her of one of those peppy blonde cheerleaders they saw in LA but maybe if she told her that Quinn's ego to swell. She prefers not to.

"He's tall. Broad-shouldered, thick brown hair, freckles, nice smile. Whiskey-coloured eyes."

"You like him." Artie snickers.

"I don't know him. And besides, I'm not too keen in getting involved with anyone anytime soon. Jesse is enough of a life lesson for me."

Quinn snarls silently and when she looks at the blonde girl she shrugs her shoulders slightly, focused on her manicure.

She steps into her room and makes to close the door and Artie speaks again. "At least make sure you eat before you see him again. Everyone here knows you as a brown-eyed beauty, I'm not sure how they'd react if he saw you like this."

She frowns and turns her eyes towards the mirror on her wall, and bright azure blue eyes sparkle back at her. She didn't even realize. There's a tugging from deep inside, and now she can feel the faint throbbing in her chest, as soon as she acknowledges it, her mouth starts to water. She groans and turns back to Quinn.

The blonde grins and winks. "There's a house party over at the Omega house. I'll bring the wine."

She ignores Artie's mental growl.

* * *

Quinn isn't the easiest person to get along with. But she was born like this so it's not like she knows any other way to be. And they're practically family, so aside from her teaching Rachel how to handle her urges, she's the only blood relative she has left. They're close, they tolerate each other and Artie is usually there to play peacemaker.

Tonight, as they walk up to the road towards the frat party, she scans the other people milling about, heading towards that party, or another party or simply hanging out and she's suddenly bombarded with images and thoughts and other hedonistic recognition of the beauty that is Quinn Fabray. A group of men, third-year students apparently, standing at the steps leading towards the house practically undress Quinn as they walk up. Rachel rolls her eyes when she sees where Quinn's mind is heading and distances herself from the potent charisma swirling around the blonde and makes her way into the party.

"Hello boys." Quinn purrs from behind her. What she says mentally, makes Rachel blush.

The party is packed with bodies, male and female, pressing in and gyrating on each other, the music is loud and seductive and alcohol flows freely. As do rolled up blunts of weed and packets of pills and powder. She sends a message to Quinn of who to avoid and heads over to the bar, grabbing a cold bottle of Red Stripe.

She leans against a wall and surveys the room, her eyes landing on a tall, dark-skinned man who is nursing his second beer and nervously fidgeting where he stands. He's a freshman and it's his first frat party. He's only there because his dorm mates dragged him out. She tips her beer back and moves towards him slowly, smiling when his eyes land on her. Matt.

She smiles seductively as his heart pounds against his chest when she steps in front of him.

"Dance with me." She purrs, running the back of her hand across his cheek. Matt shudders and her hand glows at the contact, giving her a burst of energy that wraps around her and settles in her belly. Matt smiles dopily and nods, dropping his drink on the floor and following her steps as she manouevres around him, her back pressed against the wall.

He bends down and tries to kiss her, his mind screaming at her how gorgeous she is and how good she smells and he really, really wants her naked. She controls her cringe and lets him press his lips to hers, pulling her roughly towards his groin. His lips move sloppily against hers and she grips his shirt and slants his mouth beneath hers, and she moans greedily as more energy flows from him into her. Matt groans and tries to undress himself but she grabs both his hands in hers, pressing them into his side but she allows him to push her against the wall, moaning quietly as she feeds. She feels the wetness against her leg and then he slumps against her, pressing his forehead against the wall. She slips from beneath him, smirking at the dopy look on his face as his legs give way and he falls to the floor.

"Thanks Matt." She winks and wipes her mouth, putting the bottle to her mouth and sips from her beer again.

She dances throughout the room, feeding off the remnants of Quinn's conquests, pressing herself between two cheerleaders under the staircase, her hands pushed up the blouse of the redhead in front her as the blonde behind her presses kisses to her neck, her hand shoved into Rachel's panties.

When the redhead slumps to her feet, Rachel turns around and pushes the blonde against the wall, attacking her lips easily as the girl's orgasm rips through her. The woman keens and moans, holding on to her shirt as her legs give away, her body shuddering and spasming beneath Rachel.

"Fuck me." She pleads as she slumps the floor beside her friend, spent and breathing hard, already succumbing to the lure of asleep.

Unlike Quinn, she doesn't need to go all out to satisfy her hunger, and she has a pretty good hold of her urges. She doesn't incite panic and orgies when she walks through a room. But she doesn't really mind the tingles as she walks around the room, picking up random energy flowing through the room, because Quinn gets sloppy sometimes.

Also, she's not greedy. She's good with two, three at the most.

It's harder for her too because she has to work hard to block out the thoughts of everyone surrounding her, and with Quinn nearby that's almost impossible with simultaneous orgasms rippling through the room, private thoughts screaming at her once they unravel. The headache is prickling at the back of her head and if she stays much longer she might combust from the pressure.

She spies Quinn standing near the stairs, a bottle of water in her hand as she surveys the room. The blonde is practically glowing as she moves sensuously through the crowd of people in the room. She stops suddenly and turns to Rachel, her eyebrows raised as she sniffs the air. She tilts her head to the right and frowns.

_Do you smell that?_

_Sex?_  Rachel smirks back and Quinn gives her an irritated look.

_There's something, or someone here._

She tastes the air, but the smell of sex, beer, drugs and sweat permeates the air and makes her wrinkle her nose.

She looks back to Quinn and shakes her head. She doesn't see, smell, taste, feel or hear anything unusual, that is if you don't count the two girl-five boy orgy going on upstairs in the second bedroom. Hmmph, someone likes handcuffs. She snorts and shakes her head, pulling herself from the mind currently screaming in pleasure.

But Quinn is older, and having just fed, her senses are more honed than Rachel's. She appears beside the other girl in the blink of an eye and touches her bare shoulder. Quinn's eyes flash silver briefly before she lets her connect.

She can barely feel the lingering cloying sweetness in the room, but she recoils when she does. Quinn's voice in her head tells her to calm down or close her eyes. She closes her eyes and tries to get a better grasp on the sensation prickling in the back of her mind. It's dangerous, loud and bold, she can feel that. And it was here about three or four days ago.

"It's like Artie. But cold." She murmurs to Quinn.

"Yes. And us being here is going to cause a clusterfuck. I thought Artie said the area was clean?"

She pulls her hand away from Quinn and looks around the room. "Artie isn't psychic Quinn. They could've have come here after we did."

"But here? To OSU, Rachel?" Quinn wrinkles her nose.

She refrains from rolling her eyes. Quinn wanted to go to Paris or Milan this time around; she preferred the exotic lifestyle as opposed to the relaxed and laidback notions Rachel shared with Artie, and was not pleased that they were leaving New York.

"Yes, Quinn. To Ohio State."

_Just be careful. You're still young._

She focuses on a couple in the corner making out and ignores the repetitive lecture in her head, grateful when Quinn gets distracted by a tall blond man drinking a beer, his eyes undressing her. She mewls and makes her way over to him, her thoughts dirtier than usual. Rachel screams at her mentally, cutting her eyes when Quinn glares back at her.

"Five minutes. My head's killing me. And you're not making it any easier."

* * *

She's at a music store near the OSU campus when he walks in. Joe calls her in every time he gets new (old) records because he knows she has a soft spot for old soul albums, Smoky Norful and Etta James. She's in the back corner with those thick studio headphones on listening to Solomon Burke's crooning when the familiar smell floats over to her and she hears him laughing as he talks to the store owner.

"I'm trying to find some screws for my hi hat. Got any?"

"Sure Huddy, gimme a sec."

She presses her fingers into the sponge of the headphones, so hard they thread in her hands, her breathing halted as she listens to the easy thump of his heartbeat, steady and calm under the music in her ears.

She needs to leave. She finds it funny that it's easier to deal with him when she's shrouded in darkness when technically it's more dangerous for them both. Trick is, here, there are two exits, but one is in the back near Joe's stockroom and the other is directly behind the stranger, so there is no way to get out without not being seen.

Why does she have to hide though? It's not like he will recognize her. She can't stay, she knows that much.

She puts the headphones back on the shelf beside her and bends to pick up her bag. She hears Joe shuffling in the storeroom and walks as slowly as she humanly can towards the counter and exit. Joe comes back out and calls out to her, frowning at her empty hands.

"Hey, Rach? Nothing new this time?"

She shakes her head at him, giving him a small smile. "Nah, I'll come back some other time. See ya, Joe."

She gives him a small wave and nods politely to the stranger as he smiles down at her, stepping aside so she could escape.

She runs across the street, hurrying into the evening mist but still listening to the easy conversation in the music store. The quiet stranger seems to have a love for drums because he buys a new pedal and some decals for his kit at home. Joe promises him he'll call him when he gets the new Gotye record and laughing, bids him goodbye.

"Have a good one, Finn!"

She hides in the shadows when he walks by her, his relaxed façade gone, twirling his drumsticks, face grim as he heads to a red truck in the parking lot across from the line of stores where the music shop is. She keeps up with him as he drives, following his scent and the rattle of his truck. He parks in front of student housing on the opposite side of the campus where she lives.

She's so focused on Finn that she almost doesn't recognize the cloying sweetness she picked up at the Omega frat party.

She looks around but again, nothing out the ordinary.

Finn lives on the third floor, with two other men, who complain loudly because he forgot to bring up pizza. She chuckles and turns back towards home, her pace easy and relaxed as she walks. Quinn had a gentleman caller last night, and she and Artie were sexiled. She decides to order pizza as payback, detouring to the hospital before she goes to their apartment.

* * *

The next time she sees Finn she's totally unprepared.

She's sitting with Quinn, listening to some story about two men in her Advanced Theory class when the sudden shadow falling across their table alerts her to his presence before his intoxicating smell does.

Quinn's mental shout totally belies her calm demeanor as she smiles up at the two men standing beside her and she practically purrs. She's good at that.

"Hi."

Rachel looks up, blinks and immediately stops breathing again. This is getting ridiculous and she sees the smirk on Quinn's face as she realizes what she just did.

Finn is staring at her. He looks over at Quinn and smiles politely. "Hello."

She wants to internally snicker at the look of her friend's face but Finn's attention is back on her and he's waiting for an answer.

"Hello."

"Rachel, right? I saw you in Joe's shop the other day?" Even his voice is seductive and she has to blink several times, swallowing quickly to control her reaction before she can speak.

"Yeah, hi again."

Finn's eyes widens slightly when she speaks and Quinn kicks her foot under the table.  _Turn down the charm_   _sweetie, you're_   _turning_  me  _on_.

"I'm Finn, Finn Hudson." He holds out a hand for her to shake and she does, swallowing again when tingles erupt under her fingertips when he clasps her hand. He stares at their hands, his brow furrowed and she echoes the thought Quinn throws back at her.

_He's different._

She nods imperceptibly and pulls her hand away, forcing her smile to stay on her face.

 _Whew Huddy! She's a babe. And the blonde is hot too._  His Mohawked friend beside has a cocky grin on his face, his gaze lingering on Quinn. His thoughts are dirty and she has to make sure he's human; he has a very creative imagination. Quinn would be proud.

Finn shakes his head as if he's clearing it and nods over at his friend. "Ah, this is Puck."

"Ladies." He reaches to shake Quinn's hand, pulling back with a glassy look in his eyes when she touches him. Rachel doesn't hide her snigger. She shakes Puck's hand quickly, surprised but happy that her palm didn't tingle when they touched.

"Your name is Noah." She grins. "I'm Rachel Berry. This is Quinn Fabray." She says and Quinn waves.

Puck looks from Quinn to her and blinks. "Huh?"

"Noah Puckerman. Nice nickname." She smiles mischievously. Finn chuckles.

"Yea, everyone calls me Puck. How'd you know my name?"

He's a second year business major. "Business Statistics. Professor Landon."

Quinn hides her snort behind her hands.

Noah nods and smiles at her, turning his gaze back to Quinn. "So, mind if we join you ladies? We're just about to get some lunch."

Quinn's frown is brief before she smiles disarmingly. "Sure. I was just about to go get something to eat too. Rachel?"

"Actually, I need to go. I have a paper I need to hand in before two. Some other time?" She jumps to her feet before Noah and Finn can sit down. She ignores the hurt look on Finn's face and the snarky tone Quinn responds with.

"Are you sure Rach?"  _Why are you running? Is he the guy you keep watching?_

"Yes."

Finn shuffles from one foot to the other. "Alright, I guess I'll see you around then?"

She smiles and touches his arm covered by his jacket, turns and hurries away as slowly as she can manage before she finally can breathe easily again. She's need to be able to breathe if she's going to hang around him. His scent is too intoxicating so close for her to think straight.

* * *

She looks pale and eerie in the mirrored wall as they enter the club, the beat of the music steady and throbbing. Tonight is Quinn's idea, another girl's night without Artie. Quinn, walking beside her, looks almost ethereal, her blonde hair almost white under the lights. She turns around and winks, tossing her hair over her shoulder, her green eyes sparkling as her body moves sinuously towards the throng of people writhing on the dance floor.

Rachel sighs and follows her, the anticipation prickling over her skin. She's lost count how long it's been since the last time; she doesn't need to be here, but someone needs to control Quinn and plus, she's a bit hungry.

Two hulking men raise their eyes as Quinn passes by them and she rolls her eyes, sidestepping them carefully as their gazes linger on her friend. She warns the blonde about them though, the one on the right has an affinity for choking women. While she's sure Quinn would be able to handle them, it's best to not tempt fate.

After claiming a beer from the bar, she walks to the nearest wall and closes her eyes, letting the energy pulsate around her. Someone presses in close behind her and her eyes slide open. A tall, svelte brunette brushes past her, winking as she does. She's twisting and turning her body on the dance floor, eyes glued to Rachel and beckoning her towards her.

Tiffany, a second year Biology major, twirls her body to the beat of the music and when Rachel calls out to her, she moves lithely towards her, backing the shorter girl onto the wall and presses her lips to hers. It's more of the usual, and Rachel fights to block out the running commentary the other woman has going on in her mind. She pushes her tongue into her mouth, pinching Tiffany's nipples and she can smell the woman's arousal as her body goes slack, her essence rushing from her and into Rachel. Wiping her mouth, she steps away from the brunette, pushing her so she's slouched against the wall, sighing contentedly.

She looks around and finds Quinn in the crowd, grinding between two dark-skinned men, her hands curled around the back of one's neck as he pushes his hand up her shirt, pressing into her from behind. She shakes her head at Quinn when she looks up and winks at her, going back to the bar for another beer.

She anticipates the headache this time, it's a given whenever she's out with Quinn like this. What she doesn't expect is the literal punch to the stomach that doubles her over this time. Flashes dance behind her eyes: messy brown hair, dimpled smile and someone tall, very tall. She can feel the crunch of bone under her feet and the emptiness that surrounds his aura; his death.

Crap.

 _Quinn._  She calls out. The other woman doesn't acknowledge her, too caught up in her greed and the mass of bodies pressing in around her. It's already starting.

She growls and narrows her eyes at her.  _Quinn._

Quinn snaps her eyes open, looking over at her, smirking. She knows what she's doing. What's about to happen if she keeps that fucking dancing up. Her smile dies on her face as she stares at Rachel and she frowns, her nostrils flaring as she looks around the room wildly. Rachel follows her gaze, scanning the crowded room quickly before the effects of Quinn's frenzied dance takes hold.

 _There!_  She sees him the same time Quinn's mind screams at her, he's teetering on his feet, awkward and ungainly as he moves towards the front doors, fumbling through the people pressing in around him. He's drunk, she can smell it from here.

The token six seconds she was just privy to occurs in real time achingly slow and too fast at the same time. She's beside him immediately, gripping his arm and tugging him upright right before he falls over.

"Ow!" He complains, trying to pull his arm from her grip.

"Stop it. I'm trying to help you." She commands quietly. She's not too fond of what happens next and she needs to get him, and herself, outside before it does.

Still, Finn keeps trying to pull away from her. Her hands are small, tiny in comparison to his and he's strong. She frowns, wrapping both hands around his arm and tugging him towards the door.

"Leggo. 'S hurts." He slurs.

Right as she pushes him through the doors of the club she hears the scream of the stampede from behind them.

"Wah-," He turns to go back inside and she rolls her eyes, literally lifting him off his feet and towards the parking lot and to his truck.

Quinn knows how to get home so she pushes him in, grabbing his keys from his pocket.

"Rachel?"

"Yes."

"Wha- what's going on?"

"I'm taking you home."

He groans and leans his head against the seat as she drives off, people pouring out of the doors behind them. She can hear the shouts and screams as a veritable mass orgy explodes inside the club. The big guy she saw when they first entered is pounding away at a tiny strawberry blonde in the corner of the club and if Finn wasn't throwing up outside his window she'd turn back and break the hand the guy has clamping down the woman's screams.

Why was it so hard to stay away from Finn Hudson?

 ...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Exactly how crazy am I?


	3. two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Rachel throws caution to the wind and Finn realizes there's something about Rachel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: This one got away from me. I can tell you this won't be long, and I'm trying not to rush it, but here ya go. Very intense sexytimes here, earned the M rating.
> 
> Disclaimer: Glee, not mine.

The rain has never been her friend. So she doesn't know why she's outside, at three in the morning, in the pouring rain, sitting in the stands.

Finn is running. As usual. He looks much better than when she last saw him, drunk and teetering on his feet a week ago. She doesn't think he remembers anything much, of her practically carrying him out of the club and driving him home. But he's not going to ask. And she's not going to tell. Dressed in sweatpants and a t-shirt, he's totally soaked as he runs through the rain.

Almost as if he senses her, he looks up, in her direction and sprints across the field, directly towards her.

She should probably get up and run, she can outdistance him easily enough and she's still not ready for any questions he may have for her right now. But she doesn't want to leave. She wants to be here, she wants to see him; she craves the silence he's bound to have.

He stops at the foot of the stands, staring up at her.

"Why are you always here? Always watching me?"

She shakes her head as he walks closer to her. "I'm not. I like to hang out here. It's a quiet place to read."

"Oh?" Finn moves closer.

Her heart stutters in that one word.

Tonight is. 

Different.

"Yes." She replies, her head tilted to the side, watching him as he keeps walking up the steps towards her. The sounds of the night fade away the closer he does.

"I always know when you're here. Every night I come here, before I even look across, I know you'll be sitting here, watching me."

"You can see me from that far?"

He shakes his head as he stops at the end of the row she sits in. "But I know it's you."

How? How does he know it's her? He shouldn't be able to see her clearly from the other side of the field.

"I want to kiss you." He says suddenly. She can see the reddening of his cheek as he blushes innocently, the rapid beating of his heart as he stares.

He shouldn't  _want_  to. But he does. It's her lure.

She blinks slowly as he walks closer towards her, water dripping off his face, his eyes dark and intense as he watches her. If Quinn were here she'd tell her to just go at it, do what needs to be done and leave him there spent and drained. If Quinn were here she'd drag him off to some dark corner and have her wicked way with him. But Quinn is not here, and her legs aren't moving and his smell wraps itself around her, burrowing so deep into her so she that can taste him on her tongue and her mouth waters in anticipation.

She wants him.

She gets up and steps close to him, watching his eyes as they darken every step she takes closer to him.

He has her pressed against the concrete wall of the bleachers stand behind her, his hand buried in her hair, lips hot and insistent against hers as the cool spring night rain falls on them. She has one hand curled into his shirt between them, the other in his hair. She pulls tight and is rewarded with a deep moan from him but has to remind herself to be gentle – Finn is big and hard all over, but he's still very much breakable in her arms. This, this thing with Finn feels really good, and if she wants a repeat of the occasion (which she's already sure she does) then she has to be careful. So much for staying away.

She can feel the heat crackling over her skin, his hard body pressing into her, the heady arousal swirling around them. His kisses fuel the heat building inside her and for every pass of his fingertips across her skin she can feel  _him_  soak into her.

The feeling is euphoric. She likes this. She lives for this. She wants more.

However, they're both fully clothed. She's curious as to why he's yet to ask her why she's on the bleachers in the middle of the night wearing nothing but a t-shirt and shorts. Nor has he commented on the strange heat of her skin; she runs a temperature several degrees higher than the average person so she figures he's thinking it's because of their wanton exchange why her skin feels as hot as magma, he can't be  _that_  oblivious.

"Rachel."

Desire pools in her belly at the sound of her name slipping from his lips. His breath caresses her face, his sweet smell of cinnamon and musk and sweat and so very  _Finn_ , the taste of him exploding on her tongue like fireworks.

He pulls away from her lips to nibble at her neck and she can hear the scattered, nervous beat of his heart. His lips linger on her collarbone before he reluctantly pulls away. She nearly growls at the loss and has to bite her lip hard enough to control the sudden urge to drag him back to her.

"Rachel. I really, really want you, but we're on a football field and it's the middle of the night." He whispers into her neck but the words float up to her like bells.

Yes, she realizes that.

What self-respecting woman has sex on a football field?

Well, technically she's  _not_  a woman.

She grabs hold of his chin, softly, and pulls his gaze back to hers. She's surprised when he doesn't flinch away, the only change is the faster beating of his heart, his eyes widening slightly when he meets hers.

She smirks and kisses him quickly, swallowing his moan when he pulls her closer to him.

"Where's your truck?" She asks as controlled as she can, her fingers dragging along his arms. If it were up to her she'd rip his clothes off and have her way here with him, fuck him senseless on the wet grass.

She's tempted.

Finn surprises her again by simply smiling, running his index finger from the side of her eye, down her jaw and across her lips. All she can hear is their heavy breathing and the noises of the night behind her, the man in front of her is blissfully silent, eyes only for her and in this moment. She's grateful but nervous, but lust and happiness quickly overweighs her hesitancy.

"Are you sure?" Finn asks quietly.

She has to blink several times. This is a first. No man, or woman, has ever asked her that. The second she touches them whatever her is desire at the moment is immediately met. She swallows hard and stares at the man in front of her. Finn touches his fingers to her eyes again.

"Your eyes…" He trails off. She kisses him quickly and wraps her arms around his neck, glad for his answering growl as he reciprocates her kiss.

Something is not right. He shouldn't be responding like this. Granted, she's not doing anything different (besides practically mauling his body immediately). She can feel the thrum of his essence beneath her fingertips. But she can't tap into it.

His tongue sweeps onto her bottom lip and she has to grip painfully onto his shoulder as her legs nearly give out.  _What the fuck?_

"Ow, babe. You're kinda strong." He chuckles against her lips.

She pulls away and smiles again. "Take me to your truck." She runs her fingers over his jaw again. She needs to try again.

Finn grins, and bends to kiss her again, cradling her face in his huge hands. "Are you sure, Rachel?" He pulls away to stare at her again and she shakes her head, completely confused as to what the hell is going on.

"Yes." She whispers and he smiles widely, scooping her into his arms, her legs wrapping around his waist. She can feel the limp in his left leg as he moves, his heartbeat steady and sure now, her arms around his neck, her lips peppering kisses along his jaw as he moves towards the changing rooms the football players usually use.

The locker rooms are usually cleaned daily but the underlying scent of sweat and dirt and man invades her nostrils. Finn's smell, the one she's so used to she can clearly identify it from a million others is faint, weeks, maybe a month old. She pulls away to gaze up at him and he's giving her this half-smirk, his eyes twinkling.

"What's so funny?" She asks. He pushes her against the wall outside the carpeted floor of the waiting room, just past the locker room, hands on either side of her head, her legs still wrapped around his waist.

He drops a kiss onto her forehead, his fingers brushing her hair from her forehead, stroking her face. He's staring into her eyes again and she raises an eyebrow at him.

"Your eyes are blue. Like bright, and glowing." He murmurs.

Hmm.

Finn Hudson just keeps surprising her. Being with him isn't exactly safe, but he's not dangerous, she can tell, but he's not reacting like how he's supposed to react. You know, running away.

She kisses him again and he growls, grabbing her waist and pressing his hips into hers. She's still waiting on the overflow of thoughts he's bound to be screaming in his head and she's puzzled at his continuing silence. No human just went without thinking.

Tonight is a first, and she decides to take advantage of it.

She grabs his hair and pulls his head back, her lips attached to his neck, teeth scraping lightly against his skin. He shivers under her hands and for just a second she understands the lure.

Finn moans again and pushes his hands under her shirt then pulls away from her lips to tug it from her body. She's not wearing a bra, and as his hands close over her breasts she pulls the belt from his pants free, cursing slightly when the button flies across the room and the front of his pants rips in her hands.

Finn stares at her, a question in his gaze before he shakes his head and kisses her cheek.

"You have a lot of explaining to do."

"About?"

His eyes darken and he flicks her nipples under his thumbs, smiling widely when she moans.

"You."

She glares at him when he pinches and pulls at her and she yanks his head towards her, both of them losing their balance and falling to the floor. She tugs his shirt free and over his head, tossing it aside and her shorts disappear just as quickly. He rolls her so he's hovering over her and presses kisses to her neck, across her shoulder and down her chest, nipping at her breast while his other hand draws lazy circles at her hip.

"Your skin is on fire." He murmurs, wrapping his lips around a nipple. She arches into him and pushes her hands into his hair.

"Finn," She pants, fisting his hair in her hands as his mouth moves to her other breast. His hot, damp palms leave tingles all over her body, and it was becoming all too hard to remember not to take  _all_  his body heat.

"More," she breathes, her legs falling apart as he nestles in between, pressing his lips softly up her chest and neck. He sucks on the skin above her heart, marking her, her skin red as he soothes it with his tongue. She wants him now, naked, hot and hard and inside her.

"Finn."

She uses her toes to push his pants down over his hips and his underpants with them. His kisses move back to her chest, his tongue sweeping over her nipples before moving down and licking at her belly button and before she can protest or register what he's doing his mouth is buried between her legs and tasting the sweetness at her folds.

Heat surges through her body as his lips pleasure her and she moans, her back arching off the floor. Finn reaches up to touch her, his fingers stroking along her wet folds before slipping inside just as his tongue circles her sensitive bundle of nerves.

Her head fall back, her nails scrape the floor beside her and bright lights flash behind her eyes as she keens.

"Fuck. Fuck.  _Fuck_!"

He flicks his tongue faster against her as his fingers press inside her and curls and the growl ripping through her throat surprises her just as her orgasm pushes her over.

Finn kisses his way back up her body, pushing his tongue in her mouth and she moans at the taste of her nectar on his lips.

He pulls back to stare at her, watching her eyes. "Your eyes are fucking gorgeous." He whispers. He rolls his hips against her, his pants long gone, the tip of his hardness pressing into her sex.

"Do you want this?" He asks again, dropping a kiss onto her shoulder.

She answers him by wrapping her legs around his waist, one hand gripping his back as her hips surge up to meet his. He grunts her name and puts a hand on her waist to still her.

"Jesus! Rachel."

She does it again and he sinks into her, his eyes squeezed shut, nostrils flared as he tries to catch his breath. She closes her eyes at the feel of him, hard and throbbing as he stretches her and when she opens them again, he's watching her face.

"More."

He pulls out of her and pushes back in, sweat gathering on his brow as he stares down at her. Without his thoughts shouting at her, she focuses on just the feel, sound and taste of him swirling around her, the heat from his body blending with her own, a brilliant sensation rippling through her as her body responds to his. Her hands roam over his back, feeling the muscles bunching and rippling under his skin as he moves.

He kisses her hard, dragging his hands over their sweaty bodies, nipping at her lips, swallowing her moans and sighs, her breasts crushed against his chest as he presses harder and harder into her.

A choked cry escapes as her body tenses, her thighs tightening around Finn; her body gets impossibly hotter as her walls clamps down around him, her release triggering his own. He holds her close to his chest, her body pliant in his arms as wave after wave of pleasure rips through her. Finn roars as his orgasm washes over him, and she leans up, her lips hovering near his as she pulls his essence into her. Her body shudders deliciously, goosebumps rippling over her suddenly cooled skin and she presses her chest to Finn's, arms wrapped tightly around his neck as her own body comes down from its high.

He collapses onto her, rolling onto his side and pulls her close to his body, breathing hard, his skin flushed. "Jesus, that was…" He groans again and holds her tightly, a smile stretched across his face, sated and untroubled for the first time ever since she's seen him.

"I just need to lay here awhile, get my breath back." He says quietly. He's asleep before she can answer.

She leans up on her elbow to look at him. Asleep he looks practically innocent, hair messy, freckles scattered across his nose, three marks on his right cheek below the scruffiness of several days' growth. He's beautiful. Big, all over, his hand thrown over her stomach is almost twice the size of her own hand. Broad, chiseled chest, there's a scar on his torso, right above his hip. As her fingers gently skim over it, she immediately knows it was from an appendectomy he had when he was eleven.

He has a tribal tattoo as well on his arm thrown over her and as she touches that, she now knows he got that when he was seventeen, after a drunken birthday binge with his best friend, the name on the tip of her tongue but beyond her grasp.

She traces her fingers over his face, committing his features to memory, his brow peaceful and relaxed in sleep. He murmurs her name and where her hand touches his skin, heat radiates from him to her.

She doesn't understand what's going on. She can't read him, but she has snippets of his memory, clinging to his essence that still tingles where it's now merged with her own. She wants to know more, she needs to know more, because now that she knows him, she doesn't think she can let him go.

* * *

She walks beside him, her hand wrapped around her torso, listening to the gentle staccato of his heartbeat.

"So."

She peeks up at him, watching the way he nervously rubs at the back of his neck.

She chuckles; he's nervous now? After what they just did? "Spit it out, Finn."

He laughs nervously and stops, reaching out a hand to touch her shoulder.

"Listen, I've never done this before."

Neither has she. Finn is just full of surprises and keeps making her do things she's not used to doing.

Suddenly, she feels shy, biting her lip as she pushes her hair behind her ear. She feels the mark he left on her neck and blushes, knowing that Quinn will have a field day when she sees it.

She looks up at him, and he's staring at her intently.

"Your eyes are glowing blue, Rachel." He says suddenly. "When I met you they were brown."

She steps back and he frowns.

"I know there's something really different, special about you." He murmurs, his face guarded again.

She sees the question in his eyes before he asks. How is she supposed to explain this without it sounding totally outlandish? The evidence is there, it's not like she can deny anything so she knows the questions he's going to ask. She's long accepted who she is, what she is. As far as Finn knows, her eyes glow. Telling him her story isn't as easy as one would think it would be. Where does she start?


	4. three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of one night and Finn's curiosity.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, ah, I guess I should apologize for any confusion on what they are, all will be explained, promise. Again, this is a mixture of several supernatural works, and my creativity has messed with each. Warnings for some sexytimes and darkness ahead.
> 
> Disclaimer: Glee is not mine.

Finn wants to talk. He tells her wants to know everything.

And while she would love the chance to explain, Finn was unsteady and teetering on his feet, yawning as he walks beside her. She didn't think she had taken too much of his essence, but he looks exhausted, and well, thoroughly fucked. Talking could wait until he'd eaten or slept, preferably both.

"Where's your truck?" She asks, eyes scanning the parking lot ahead of them.

He yawns again as he looks down at her, covering his mouth with his hand, giving her a sheepish look. "Sorry."

She smiles and shakes her head.

"I didn't drive, I ran here."

She frowns and narrows her eyes at him. "You ran across campus and then ran the length of a football track? In the middle of the night? Why would you do that?"

His eyes darkened as he looks ahead of him. "It's just stuff."

"Anything to do with your limp or the scar on your leg?"

He looks back down at her, his eyes guarded. "You talk to me and I talk to you."

Fair is fair.

"Alight." She concedes. "But you need to go home and lie down, you're tired."

"I'm not. We need to talk." He replies, fighting a yawn.

"I'll walk with you. We can talk later, I promise."

"You're going to walk with me? Rachel, it's three in the morning."

"Yes, I know." She smiles at him.

"Where do you live?"

"On the other side of campus."

"There's no way in hell I'm letting you walk  _me_  home and then walk by yourself this early in the morning  _to the other side of campus_."

She tries to keep the smile off her face.

"What? Why are you smiling like that?"

"Finn, I could run to your apartment and get your truck in under three minutes. And trust me, there are few things that could hurt me walking around Columbus, Ohio."

He stops and blinks at her. "I'm not sure if I should be impressed or scared knowing that."

She bites her lip and stares ahead. "You should be cautious. I'm not exactly good for you or your health."

"Yea, well, neither is drinking and driving." He mutters so quietly she doesn't think she was supposed to hear that. She turns to him and gestures for him to start walking again. He covers another yawn.

"Finn. Let me walk you home. I'm afraid you'll fall over on your face before you even get there, you're that tired. Trust me, I'll be fine."

He looks like he's weighing her earlier piece of information against the fatigue creeping over him. He starts walking again, pulling her into his side as he points his footsteps towards his apartment.

"Alright, I feel like I'm slugging through mud with how tired I feel. But the second I wake up, we're talking."

"Deal."

"Good."

She puts her hand in his pocket, pulling out his phone. He watches as she dials her number and then slips it back in. They walk in silence for all of four minutes before he speaks again.

"Is it because of who or what you are why you feel so hot, or why your eyes change colour?" He asks quietly.

"Yes."

"Do you kill people?"

She hesitates and he tucks her closer into his side. "Not intentionally."

"OK." He breathes.

The fact that this is his response worries her. Isn't this usually the part in the story when the guy or girl runs away screaming when he/she realizes they're walking beside a monster? Finn's heartbeat is steady and calm as they walk. He's quiet for the rest of their walk to his apartment. She walks with him up the stairs and waits until he unlocks the door.

"Call me when you get home?"

She rolls her eyes and chuckles lightly.

"Humour me?" Finn insists. She nods and lets him pull her into him, crushing his lips to hers. She tries to hold back taking any more of him into her but still he wobbles on his feet, his heartbeat escalating as they stand there.

Even in sleep Noah's mind is raunchy and detailed. The other man in the apartment, Kurt, she reads, is having a very explicit dream about bowties, handcuffs and a man named Blaine. The images in their minds latch on to hers and she has to fight to tamper down the heat unfurling in her stomach. She pulls away and pushes Finn inside.

"Sleep. You need to rest. And drink some water."

He nods and she slips away as fast as she can.

She gets home in no time and pulls out her phone, texting Finn quickly.

 _I'm guessing tonight went well?_  Artie emerges from the darkness, his eyes blue and bright. He's just fed, it looks like, there's a spot of blood on his shirt sleeve.

She smiles knowingly and follows him inside. Quinn is curled up on the couch flipping through the channels, empty bottles of water scattered on the floor around her. There's an open bottle of red wine on the table. She looks up as they enter and smiles widely.

"I don't need to be a mind-reader to know that you got laid tonight Rachel."

She rolls her eyes and snatches the bottle of wine and Quinn's glass. "Good girls don't kiss and tell."

Artie snorts. "Rachel, that might work with others, but you're not exactly good nor a girl. And much as I'd like us to partake in your juicy stories about you and your mystery man, we have a problem." He pauses and his face looks grim.

"There are other vampires in the area."

"Figures. I smelled them the night we were at that frat party." Quinn mutters.

"But they're not like you, are they, Artie?" Rachel asks.

Artie's eyes flash gold as his gaze switches between them. "No. And they have no qualms about killing. I ran into proof of that tonight."

* * *

Finn calls her around midday. She had dozed off after talking to Quinn and Artie, the latter retiring to their respective rooms as soon as daylight peeked through the windows.

"How're you feeling?" She asks sleepily, stretching the kinks out of her small body.

"Refreshed. Sated. Energized." He laughs on the other end.

"Yea, a good night's sleep will do that to you." She chuckles.

Finn laughs lightly. "You?"

Her mind flashes briefly to Artie's warnings last night. "I'm good."

"Good."

Someone on Finn's end of the line asks him who he's talking to and then there's some scuffle as he pushes the person away, male laughter and (she assumes its Noah) grunts. Artie comes in and relaxes on the foot of her bed, smiling winningly at her, teeth glinting brightly. Quinn walks up and leans against the doorjamb, her smile smug as she watches and listens. They're both singing some silly love songs in their heads which means, they intend to to annoy her.

 _Don't you two have nothing better to do that eavesdrop on my love life?_  They both shake their heads slowly.

"Hey Finn," She sighs. "How bout I make us some lunch? I can be there in half an hour."

* * *

He's not home alone, she realizes as she stands at his front door. She knocks and then covers her mouth as she laughs at the scuffle going on behind the door as Finn fights his brother to open the door. She almost breaks the door down when Kurt knees Finn in the groin and laughingly steps over him. His smile disappears and he actually steps back from her glare when he opens the door and sees her.

"Finn, are you alright?"

Kurt looks from her to his brother (step-brother) and back to her. Suffice to say Finn, did not tell them about her. (This is good.)

Finn stands up, playfully ruffling his stepbrother's perfectly coiffed hair and nods at her. "I'm good Rach."

She smiles at him and lets him pull her into the apartment, kissing her cheek that colours at him giving her a nickname. He nods over at Noah and then to the small, lithe, perfectly dressed man standing in the corner carefully assessing her.

"You remember Puck, and this is my brother, Kurt." He drops a heavy hand on the smaller man's shoulder. Kurt raises an eyebrow at her and she's surprised at herself when she realizes she actually wants him to like her, Noah too. There's a strong bond of brotherly love between the three men; Noah and Finn have been friends since middle school, and even though they both used to tease Kurt, when Kurt's father and Finn's mother got married the duo became a trio. She reads the fierce protective pride radiating from Kurt which extends to Noah as well.

"Nice to meet you Kurt." She smiles politely and holds her hand out for him to shake.

He purses his lips and clasps her hand in his, shaking it curtly. He's not that hard to read, although he's doing a running commentary of what she looks like compared to what Finn has told him about her, which is nothing but her name. He's innately suspicious of any woman Finn dates, since his brother has had his heart broken twice already and as recent as last month. Her eyes flit to Finn's and he's watching her with curiosity.

"So, food?" Noah asks, rubbing his stomach.

She pulls her hand from Kurt's and chuckles, holding up the bag. "Good thing I made enough."

* * *

Finn tugs her into his room after they've all stuffed themselves on Parmesan chicken and garlic bread. If their thoughts are anything to go by, both Kurt and Noah approve of her cooking skills. Finn had two servings and he kept grinning at her so she can only assume he enjoyed his lunch. And by the way he's pressing her onto the mattress, her assumptions are correct.

She's very much aware that the other two men are in the next room, since Noah is basically broadcasting what Finn (Noah) would be doing right now to her (Quinn). She tries to mentally suggest he and Kurt both leave the apartment, hinting Kurt could go find Blaine and Noah could leave and go do anything but stay in the apartment and undress Quinn in his mind.

She grips Finn's shoulder as a particular vivid thought from Noah attacks her libido and she rocks her hips against Finn. (Noah seems to get the idea because he jumps up abruptly and hurries out after Kurt.)

"You taste better than food." Finn murmurs into her neck.

"I could say the same about you." She moans as he covers her mouth with his and fitted his body to hers, his body heat like living flame. His hands creep under her dress, pushing it up past her waist and over her chest, his palms settling over her breasts; her nipples pebbling under his warm hands as her back arches into him.

"Rachel." He breathes.

She fumbles to pull his shirt over his head as he tries to get her dress off. They pull away briefly and hastily discard their clothes, falling back onto his bed in a tangled mess of limbs, his hand pushing into her hair, her arms wrapping around his neck, slanting his mouth over hers as he pushes into her body, slick and wet.

Finn mutters praises into her skin, his body afire against hers. His hips drive into hers and her fingers scramble to get a grip on his broad shoulders, her snails scraping over his back, already slick with sweat.

He sits up on his knees, pulling her up with him, his hands spread across her back as she wraps her legs around his waist. He fists his hand in her hair, pulling it back and exposing the skin at her throat. His kisses make their way back to mark the spot he put their earlier, his teeth nibbling, lips sucking as he brands her.

Every fibre of her body is on fire and tingling as Finn brings her body down onto his, pressing hot kisses against her skin, his fingers brushing between her legs. She presses her breasts to his chest, back arched and a loud guttural moan escapes her as her body clamps down onto his, pulling him over the edge with her. His hand at her waist grips hard as he pulls her down to meet his thrusts.

She reaches up and drags his face to hers, crushing her lips to his and inhales the essence she pulls from him, swallowing greedily as her body milks his. He collapses atop her, skin slick and warm, his hard body still vibrating with the after-effects of his orgasm.

"Oh, fuck!"

Finn rolls onto his side, carrying her with him and buries his face into her neck. He shudders as she strokes his hair and as their breathing calms, the fire pooled in her belly recedes, her fingertips tingling as it passes over his body.

Finn yawns and mumbles sleepily, "I don't think I can move. I don't want to move."

Her laughter shakes his body atop hers and she kisses his hair.

"Don't think I've forgotten. We still need to talk."

She nods and keeps stroking his hair.

"Sex with you is awesome, Rach. But fuck if I'm not tired."

She giggles lightly then moans when he wraps his lips around her nipple.

"Stop laughing at me. You need to rest too."

"Not really."

He does it again and she wiggles out of his arms, pulling the sheet between their bodies. Wasn't she supposed to be the sexual vampire? She tucks herself into his side, smiling when Finn already starts snoring.

* * *

He wakes her up by pulling her close to his side, brushing her hair aside so he can press his lips to her shoulder. Her eyes slip open easily and she blinks at the clock on his night-table blaring 4:07pm in large green numbers.

"Tell me." He breathes. "Please."

She turns in his arms and touches his jaw. She can see his face clearly, and his eyes are curious, and filled with some kind of emotion. She's really hoping it's not fear.

He bends down quickly and kisses her, whispering against her lips. "I'm not scared, Rach."

She sighs and closes her eyes, how did he know she was thinking that? And how is he so calm right now?

"Please?" He breathes.

She takes a deep breath and opens her eyes, peering up at him.

"I was born like this. I'm a dhamphyr."

Finn's breath hitches and he just stares at her.

"I have no idea what that is, and I've done my research." He mumbles after a while.

She chuckles nervously. "I left you alone for nine hours, and you were supposed to be sleeping. What kind of sleep-deprived, sensible research did you possibly do in nine hours?"

He winks at her and kisses her again. "So you're not a vampire?"

"Sorta."

He frowns.

"How can you  _sorta_  be a vampire?"

"My father was a vampire. My mother was a succubus."

He pulls back from her and sits up quickly. " _Your mother was a demon?_ "

She rolls her eyes and covers her face. "You really shouldn't trust Wikipedia on something like this."

Finn snorts. "Yea, well, I was curious." He taps his cheek thoughtfully and tugs at the sheet still covering her. "But you're not like Quinn and Artie, are you? How'd you end up with them?"

She pulls back the sheet and worries at her lip. They shouldn't be discussing this, in bed like they are right now, like they're discussing a movie. Finn should be on the other side of the room, afraid and insisting that she leave, putting distance between them both. He's sitting beside her, stark naked and so relaxed that she's the one who's nervous.

She wishes she knew what he was thinking.

Besides, explaining the others is a whole different thing. "Quinn's my mother's aunt. And my father turned Artie."

Finn is quiet as he thinks. "Quinn looks kinda hot for an old woman, wait. How old are you?"

Her cheeks turn pink. "Don't you know you're not supposed to ask a woman her age?"

She buries her face into his chest as he pulls her closer; she's nervous he's taking this all so easily. "I'll be 90 in December."

Finn whistles. "I'm 20 and you don't look a day over 18."

She snorts and lets him bury his face in her hair, breathing her in the same way she's breathing him in. To think, a few days ago just the scent of him drover her crazy and terrified her. Now, after one day, he's managed to scare her, energize her, relax her and provide her with a kind of solace she's never been able to find before. If this were a fairy tale she could look forward to happy times with Finn. But its not a fairy tale and sooner or later, some thing's going to go wrong. As fast as this thing is with Finn, she can't ignore that nagging feeling that this, right here, won't last.

* * *

He drops her off at her apartment that night after they go to the movies and it's so normal and casual like she's young and 18 and she buries her face in Finn's shoulder laughing when Artie flicks the light twice, grinning from the window before disappearing.

"I thought he was in a wheelchair." Finn frowns looking towards the window.

"Yeah, well, he tries to change up his appearance every time we move somewhere new. This time apparently he's a paraplegic Business major." She replies, her fingers playing with the hem of his t-shirt.

Tonight was incredible, and another first for her, able to live in the moment and ignore the trepidation she feels skittering over her skin when she looks out the window. Finn is the first human she's ever slept with, the first man to affect her this strongly without even trying, and the first person to actually scare her.

He hugs her tight to his chest, lifting her up from her feet and kisses her soundly. She wraps her hands arms around his neck and melts into his kiss, stealing his essence little by little, and giving it back. Another first.

Finn groans.

"Can I see you tomorrow?"

"Can't. You have a full day of classes and so do I. Mondays are no joke."

"Rachel, I'm pretty sure you  _don't_  need to attend classes. What's this, your tenth degree?" He jokes.

"Thirty-third Bachelors." She frowns. "But it's the first time I'm studying Music Appreciation."

Finn blinks at her and she laughs and shakes her head, kissing him to distract him. He has this deer-caught-in-the-headlights look whenever she says something like this.

"Tuesday?"

"Workshop. And Wednesday you're supposed to have a test."

He pulls back from her lips. "How do you know that?"

"Kurt. He's basically memorized your schedule. And he's going to warn you about that history paper you have due next week too."

"A studious dhamphyr. Who'd ever thought one would see the day? I thought creatures like you were supposed to love mystery and luring young men to their carnal death?"

She stares at him before bursting out in laughter. "You really need to stop reading Wikipedia. They get some things wrong most of the time."

He touches her face and smiles.

"See you Friday then?"

She nods.

He kisses her again before getting back in his truck and driving off.

They barrage her with thoughts the second Finn's headlights turn the corner. _Seriously_ , _you've been on cloud nine the past couple of days. Don't drain him too quickly, he looks like a lot of fun in bed._

 _Shut up Quinn!_  She snarls, flying into the apartment and smacking the blonde over the head. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: So, if someone told me they're a supernatural creature of the night, I'm running. What say you?


	5. four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even faced with danger, Finn doesn't care.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Still confused? For an idea about Rachel's gifts, YouTube a clip of Lost Girl, she's my inspiration. Again, this is a mixture of several supernatural works, and my creativity has messed with each (with some clichés, sorry). Warnings for some sexytimes and darkness ahead.
> 
> Disclaimer: Glee, isn't mine.

For as long as she could remember it was her, Artie and Quinn. What she knows about her parents was only what they had told her.

Her mother had simply just disappeared after she was born, when she was barely a week old. And her father, whether it was that he was heartbroken, or scared for her, afraid as to what her future could possibly hold, had just withered away to nothing after starving himself and then finally combusting one early morning when she was two.

Artie sort of became her big brother afterwards. Her father had found him in a car accident that had killed the rest of his family and left him with a broken back. He'd brought Artie back to their house and turned him, when her mother was still pregnant.

Quinn had helped search for Rachel's mother and her sister, Shelby, when she had disappeared but had had no luck and so after her father passed, it was just the three of them.

They had come in contact with other vampires over time and all but one had shown any interest in her; while she was part vampire, it seems her vampiric gifts were suppressed.

Unlike Artie, she does sleep, she can easily walk in sunlight with little fear of her skin glowing, she can eat human food but she strangely prefers a vegetarian diet and has never suffered from bloodlust. And just like he and Quinn, she has speed, strength and agility, an acute sense of smell and near perfect eyesight. And a love for red wine.

Like her aunt, she feeds on the emotions, sexual natures and life essence of humans and vampires alike, and was able to manipulate their sexual desires. She had claimed only one life, that of a human male before Quinn had helped her control her urges and she now usually left humans sated and extremely tired or unconscious and vampires just simply sated and relaxed.

Unlike both Artie and Quinn she was able to both mentally receive from and project thoughts to others, both human and supernatural.

Except Finn. His mind was completely silent to her and she wasn't able to tap into his emotions or desires. She could only feed from him while being intimate and she usually felt more energized than usual afterwards.

Artie nor Quinn were unable to explain Finn's resistance to her.

Rachel was the only dhamphyr they had ever known and whenever they came across other supernaturals they kept the fact that she could tap into others' minds between themselves; only Jesse had known and Quinn had worn herself down trying to root feelings of intense dislike and indifference in him towards Rachel before they had left New York. He was dangerous and older and stronger than both Quinn and Artie.

Artie was adamant that until they figured out how to get rid Jesse, Rachel would never be safe.

* * *

Tuesday night she goes to the football stands to try and relax, but really to get away from Quinn and Artie's inquiring minds; Finn wasn't running tonight – his brother had insisted he stay in and study for his test the next afternoon. She sits in the corner of the stands and opens  _Anna Karenina_ again. Soon though, she gets the feeling she's being watched and the distinct impression of danger and anger washes over her.

Remembering Artie's warnings she races home to get the others so she and Quinn try can to read their surroundings.

Quinn's eyes turn into flat orbs of silver when Artie identifies the cold smell. "It's stronger now."

Rachel touches her hand to Quinn's arm and immediately recoils when she tries to boost her senses using the succubus'.

"Rachel?"

She pushes her fingers against her temple. "What I just felt doesn't  _feel_  like anything I've felt before. It's dark and angry, I mean pissed off. And it's more than just one. But its vampire."

"Let's get back to the house. I think we should call Tina and Mike. Just in case it's who I think it is." Artie murmurs, his eyes scanning around them and tugs her with him as he turns and runs back to their apartment.

She answers the thought that idly runs through Quinn's mind.

"I don't think Finn has anything to do with it." She bristles in annoyance.

"You can't read him Rachel, so you don't know that."

"But he's human." Artie says, opening the door and ushering them in.

"Doesn't mean someone hasn't done something to him to explain why he's resistant to Rachel."

"Are you saying there are others like her? We've never come across any."

"Artie," Quinn sighs, "just because we haven't come across any other vampire-succubi hybrid doesn't mean they don't exist."

Artie grits his teeth and hardens his eyes at the blonde. "That's not what I'm saying Quinn. I meant with Rachel's gifts. She can read our minds; as far as I know Hiram couldn't do that and I don't know of any vampire who can do that."

"I know Shelby couldn't. I don't know of any succubi who can either. Or incubi. And those things are scattered around like leeches."

Rachel laughs and answers Artie's unasked question. "No, he's not part incubus or part vampire or part anything. I'm pretty sure he's wholly human."

Artie turns his glare to her and she smiles innocently. "I really wish you'd stop doing that."

Quinn gets up and walks to get an unopened bottle of wine. Rachel's head whips around fast to face her. "Certainly not!"

Quinn grins. "Why not?"

"No, Quinn."

"But it could be fun."

"Want to include me in the conversation?" Artie sighs tiredly.

"Quinn wants me to invite Finn over." She responds through gritted teeth.

"Hmm. It's not a bad idea, really Rachel."

Her eyes flash as she glares at him. Quinn snickers.

"Are you serious? What's going to stop her from trying to suck the life out of him?"

"No dear, I'll leave that to you." The blonde winks.

She ignores her aunt.

"Seriously Artie, I know he seems like he's all chill with knowing about me and everything, which for the record is dumb and frightens me just a little, but putting him in a room with a vampire and a succubus who deliberately manipulates her urges is a tad bit dangerous."

"Rachel, I haven't had human blood in forever, are really you worried about that?"

"No, Artie. I'm worried about what  _she_  might do given the situation with all three of us there. Please, don't tell me you've forgotten Sugar?" She turns to point at Quinn and Artie turns around and narrows his eyes at her.

"What?" Quinn asks with feigned innocence.

He shakes his head at her and walks away towards his room. "I'll go call Tina."

* * *

She didn't exactly foresee spending her Friday night like this.

Pizza, beer and Finn, sure.

Pizza, beer, Finn, Puck and Kurt? No. But this is what Finn proposes and she accepts.

She runs to Finn's after another lengthy discussion with Artie and Quinn with Tina on speakerphone. She and Mike were in Japan and wasn't able to come to Ohio until the following week and promises her best friend she'll bring all the research they she on Jesse. Artie throws her a worried  _'be careful'_  when she walks through the front door.'

As she walks towards Finn's door the smell of vampire comes to her and she knocks on the door quickly, her smile tight when Kurt opens the door to let her in.

"Hey! Come on in, we're having a pizza party!" He grabs her arm and pulls her inside. "Rachel doesn't eat pepperoni dude!" Finn shouts from his bedroom.

She ignores Kurt's mental musing that she ate chicken the last time she was there but brushes it away as she surveys the room, nodding at Noah. He grunts in response.

"Rachel, this is my boyfriend, Blaine." Kurt smiles warmly at the dark-haired vampire staring at Rachel with wide eyes.

"Rachel, hi –, ah, hello." Blaine nervously gets to his feet, his eyes turning fully gold before going back to their warm hazel colour. His hand is fever warm to her touch and she smiles easily at him.

"Nice to meet you Blaine."  _And relax. How old are you?_  Blaine's eyes widen impossibly more as Kurt shuffles away to the kitchen. He swallows quickly, tilting his head to the side before thinking his answers for her.

_I'm thirty._

_Still young. I'm taking neither of them know?_

He shakes his head furiously. ' _No. I've only been dating Kurt for a month.'_

_Ah. Well, I guess we have plenty to talk about._

Blaine smiles and nods at her, their silent conversation occurring in just a matter of seconds. Finn comes over and lifts her off her feet, pressing his lips to hers.

"Yes, I missed you too." She laughs, pushing her fingertips into his dimples.

"Kurt won the toss-up for movie night, so it's Broadway. And Puck forgot to order pizza without meat." He says apologetically, leading her to the couch.

She shrugs and takes the beer Blaine tosses at her. "I'm good."

Noah grumbles about girly movies at the start of the Broadway musical Kurt chose for them to watch and Kurt gives him a death look. He's still trying to impress Blaine, Blaine is trying to figure out if he should tell Kurt what he is, and wondering if they know what  _she_ is, Noah is jealous because he's the only one there without a date and Finn is blissfully silent. She turns to him and pulls his face down to kiss him.

"The next time we're kicking Artie and Quinn out and staying in at my place." She whispers against his lips. He chuckles and nods, kissing her quickly before turning back to the movie. Kurt tosses popcorn at them and she catches it, deftly flicking it back towards him.

* * *

It's the first day of spring break before she gets a chance to see Finn again. She smells him and hears the steady thrum of his heartbeat before he even has a chance to knock and throws open the front door, grinning at him. One side of his mouth lifts up when he smiles and she grabs him and pulls him inside, flitting through the apartment and throwing him on her bed.

He stares up at her with something akin to awe.

"I'll never get used to the fact that you're half my size and stronger  _and_ faster than I am."

She growls playfully and pounces atop him, pressing her lips to his. He wraps his arms around her waist and crushes her to his chest, smiling into their kiss.

"Good day?" She asks, pulling away from him and peppering kisses along his jaw.

"Yeah. I'm pretty sure I aced my statistics test on Thursday and I need a study partner for this big history exam coming up when we go back."

She raises her head and smirks at him. "Study partner, eh?"

He leans up on his elbows and smiles cheekily.

He flips them over so she's on her back, and tugs her shirt off, waggling his eyebrows when he realizes she's not wearing a bra. He runs his nose over her collarbone and kisses each of her nipples in turn, making his way achingly slow from one breast to the next when the intensity in the room increases tenfold and Finn moans, long and hard, his body going rigid as he presses his face into her chest.

She's panting hard, her body tingling as the aftermath of Finn's orgasm seeps into her and just then Quinn's mental purr reaches her mind, dripping sin, sex and honey. The succubus in the next room licks her lips, her hands trailing lazily over her stomach.

 _GET OUT!_ She screams mentally at her, sensing Finn's embarrassment as he hides his face in her chest.

 _Was that good or what?_  Quinn muses. Rachel shrieks internally and forcibly pushes Finn's torment towards Quinn, smiling to herself as Quinn stumbles and curses lightly before slipping out the door and away.

"Finn? Hey."

"No." His muffled voice protests.

"Babe, look at me. Hey, it's not what you think."

"I think this is mortifying and if could walk right now I'd run away as fast as I possibly could." He mumbles into her stomach.

She laughs despite herself and Finn pokes her in the side, making her squeal. He looks up at her and glares.

"This isn't funny."

She snorts and covers her mouth. "No, it's not. But Quinn likes to play games sometimes."

His eyebrows shoot up in surprise and he pushes up on his elbow to stare at her properly. "You mean…"

"A succubus just roofied you." She says, exasperated.

His mouth falls open and he turns to stare at her bedroom door.

"Don't worry. I chased her away. She's gone with quite a headache." She rests her palm on his cheek and he leans into her hand, turning his eyes back to her.

"Oh. Wow."

She smiles. Finn seems more embarrassed with what just happened than the fact that a succubus just overruled his emotions. He's still silent to her and he smells the same he always has.

"That was almost as good as the other night. Minus the," his cheeks colour pink and he ducks his head, "early arrival part."

She laughs and pulls his head up to hers, pushing her lips against his, smiling at his taste and the way his hands move to wrap around her waist.

"I know something besides my ego you could be stroking." She whispers against his mouth.

"Oh? C'mon, like you aren't better at this than Quinn is."

She pushes him away slightly so she can meet his eyes, her gaze flickering back to his lips as his tongue peeks out. "No, not really. Quinn was born the way she is, a succubus. I'm only part-succubus. I can't do what she can."

He pulls away from her entirely, giving her closed door a wary glance and sits up. "What do you mean?"

She grabs her sheet to cover her chest and pushes herself back against the headboard, her smile sheepish as Finn blinks when he realizes she's not beside him in the middle of the bed anymore. His eyes are wide and impressed as he turns to look at her.

"See, that should creep me out, but it doesn't."

"I'm curious as to why it doesn't. I mean, I assume I'm the first supernatural you've ever met." She doesn't count Blaine, because neither Kurt nor Noah recognizes and Finn hasn't acted anyway different towards him, so.

He furrows his brow, nods then rubs the back of his neck. "Yeah. I mean, aren't  _you_  like roofying me right now? Like that night at the football stadium?"

She shakes her head slowly. "Try as I might, I can't. And I didn't."

"You can't?"

"Nuh uh."

"So, this," he gestures between them, "you're not responsible for it? This intensity? The memories?"

"Memories?" She tilts her head to the side.

Finn nods. "Like, I can remember glimpses of stuff. A rooftop in New York. An apartment in Connecticut. A hockey match in Vancouver, I felt really, really good about that."

She worries at her lip as he talks. This has never happened to her before. She's never been able to pass on her memories to someone else. Her thoughts yes, and only just what she was thinking or feeling at the time, or what she wants someone else to feel. But never her memories unintentionally.

What was it about Finn that he could absorb her memories and she his? But not everything else?

She sighs.

"Finn, from the first day I saw you, you managed to surprise me. Usually I can sense, like, hear or feel someone coming, or smell them as they approach. The first time I saw you at the field running, it was your smell that made me know you were there."

"But you can hear Quinn and Artie and Puck and Kurt? And everyone else?"

She nods.

"You can't hear me?"

She shakes her head. "And I can't  _tell_  you anything. I can't read your feelings, or sense or use your emotions. The only thing I can get from you is your essence and sometimes snippets of your own memories. And that's only after we've had sex."

She blushes and covers her face. "Being with you is as close to a normal human as I'll probably ever get."

She feels the bed move as he crawls up beside her, his heartbeat steady and sure. Finn pulls her hands from her face and lays beside her, pulling her down with him.

"So you aren't doing anything to me? Not like Quinn can, or just did?"

"No." She breathes.

His eyes twinkle as his smile lights up his face.

"So everything I feel for you is real then?"

"I don't know. This has never happened to me before and neither Quinn nor Artie seem to understand it. It's not like I have much experience with this anyway. I've never had a relationship with a human. And the one other relationship I tried wasn't exactly healthy."

"Why do you say that?"

She puts her hand on his chest, feeling the  _lub lub_  of his heart under her palm, glad for the silence of his mind.

"He was a vampire. And he had this grand idea to try and turn me. There aren't a lot of supernaturals, that's people like me, I guess, and he wants to tap into the 'true nature of my essence'. His words, not mine." She sighs and Finn tightens his arms around her.

"I've seen how dark he can be. I don't want to be like that. I can control myself, every part of me. But it doesn't mean there isn't some darkness inside me."

There's nothing from Finn besides the steady beat of his heart. Does nothing scare this man?

"You need to understand that I'm not human, Finn. I never was, and I never will be."

He nods, staring straight ahead.

"So you don't drink blood?"

"No, Finn."

"No fangs?"

She stares at him and he looks at her and shrugs, grinning.

"You sound disappointed."

He grins cheekily at her and brushes hair from her forehead.

"So, you're  _not_  poisonous?"

She smacks his chest and he grunts, grabbing her small in his. He rubs his thumb over her palm and stares silently at the ceiling.

"So, you can't bite me?" He asks after a minute.

She lifts her head to look at him. "I can bite."

He turns to look at her, the real question he wants to ask written on his face.

Oh.

She shakes her head slowly and lays back down still staring at him. He gives her a soft smile and goes back to staring at the ceiling.

His unspoken question is heavy with underlying meaning.

She's never had to think about this before. Not since Jesse asked, and then that had just turned out wrong.

Finn was only twenty. And while she was technically four times his age, she looked as young as he did. He would grow old. He could get sick. He would die. And she wouldn't. Well, she wasn't as fragile as Finn, she could die, but it would take considerable effort for her to.

The sudden reality hit her like a Mack truck to the chest and she cries out softly. Almost like he was waiting for her to catch up to his thoughts, for her to figure out what he was really asking, Finn pulls her into his side, pressing his lips to her hair. She places her palm on his chest, revelling in the tingling sensation under her fingertips, his heartbeat thrumming faster than a hummingbird's wing. She doesn't want to think of him not here.

* * *

He takes her out on another 'real date' a couple days later, bowling and nachos. She doesn't tell him about the days she and Artie would spend their time at the Big 20 Bowling Center in Maine, when they tried to get away from Quinn and her numerous guests. They perfected their game at that alley, and were still tied for the record for highest wins.

After their second straight game where she actually tries to miss the pins and still knocking them down regardless, Finn huffs and throws down his pencil.

"Seriously? Why do I have the feeling no matter what we do you're still going to be great at it?"

She walks over and sits on his lap. "Believe me when I tell you I've had nothing but time on my hands. But there are some things I'm not particularly good at."

He wraps his arms around her waist and tugs on the end of her hair. "Like?"

"Billiards." She wrinkles her nose. "I suck."

Finn drops his face onto her shoulder as he chuckles.

"Oh, and I can't play the guitar." She wiggles her hand in front of his face. "Too small."

Finn laughs lightly and puts their hands palm to palm; his hand is huge against hers and he smiles and wraps her hand in his.

"Don't take this the wrong way, but I like the fact that you're so small."

"Small?"

He nods. "I know you're a big, bad, dangerous creature of the night and all," he laughs again when she smacks his shoulder, "ow!"

He grabs her hand and presses her knuckles to his mouth. "You're kind of perfect the way you are. Everything and every part of you."

"I'm still not so sure why you're so blasé about this whole I'm sleeping-with-a-half-vampire-half-succubus thing."

"Me either. I mean, I guess I should be scared or cautious on some level, but deep down I know I'm safe with you."

She leans back to stare at him and he shrugs. He's completely serious.

"I'm still not ruling out you being slightly insane."

Finn barks in laughter and picks her up in his arms while he stands. "Date night's over. I'm done with you besting me at everything. Let's go home and watch a movie or something. At least I can have my wicked way with you behind closed doors."

Her laughter is happy and carefree all the way to his truck. She sings along with Christina Perri while he drives but stops suddenly when Finn's heart starts to beat too fast.

"Finn?"

"Huh?"

"Are you alright?"

"Uh huh."

She leans over and touches his knees. "Your heart is beating unusually fast."

"You can hear that?" He squeaks.

She points to herself. "Dhamphyr, remember? Excellent hearing."

Finn nods and smiles shyly. "Your voice does ridiculous things to my heart." He says seriously.

He turns to look at her at a stop sign. "You sure you're not part siren too?"

She laughs and shakes her head, settling back in her seat as he starts driving again.

"You should sing more, really. People would pay good money to hear you." He whistles.

"Yea. Quinn and I had a thing when we were in Paris. I'd sing and lure young men into dark corners and then we'd take turns feeding."

Finn turns his head slowly to look at her, narrowing his eyes at her when she smiles wickedly.

"That's not funny."

"I thought you weren't scared of me." She laughs.

"Of you I'm not. Quinn. She creeps me out."

"Well, Quinn is just devious all around. She actually wants to meet you, and so does Artie. I'm afraid they're either going to go all big brother/big sister or try and scare the crap out of you."

"Um, Artie's a vampire. I guarantee I'm scared of him." Finn grumbles.

"How is it you're scared of them and not me?" She huffs crossing her arms.

"Because I know you won't hurt me. I mean, you're stronger and quicker and yes I know, dangerous." He turns to her and winks. "But you won't hurt me." He turns up the radio when a Robin Thicke song comes in, reaching over and pulling her closer to him. His voice is quiet as he sings, his fingers trailing up over her arm, making goosebumps erupt over her skin.

His phone beeps as they turn onto his street and his singing cuts off abruptly after he reads the incoming text.

"Crap."

She look up to see him frowning. He shakes his head as he parks, glancing towards his walk-up and then back at her.

"This is bound to get interesting."

She looks at him questioningly.

"My brother just told me that my ex-girlfriend is upstairs."

"OK. Scared for me to meet the competition?"

"Believe me, there's no competition. She's ancient history. And actually the reason for my limp." He sighs and kills the ignition. "I don't know what she's even doing here. She transferred to some school in Boston after the accident."

She takes his hand and threads her fingers through his.

"It can't be that bad, is it? Let's just go up and see what she wants. Sooner we go, the sooner she can leave."

Finn nods and opens his door, hopping out and walking around to pull her door open.

The second Finn opens his door though she wants to pull him back in and drive away. She's sure Finn isn't even aware of the cold, sweet smell wafting down from his walk-up.

And she knows it all too well.

_Vampire._


	6. five

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where Kurt realizes, something isn't what it seems.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Not all of the Gleeks make an appearance in this, trying to include as many as I possibly can, and yes, a lot of them will be totally OOC, but I'm loving the opportunity to mess with them. Warnings for of course some sexytimes, fluff and darkness. And yes, you may realize some mythology from elsewhere.

The woman seated on the lavender striped sofa that Kurt was so proud of would have been considered beautiful if not for the ugly sneer on her face. She was slim and shapely, with caramel-coloured skin, flowing jet-black hair and hard, cruel brown eyes.

There's nothing to tell otherwise that she was a vampire, if not for the sweet scent wafting from her and the abnormal thrum of a heartbeat, Rachel was pretty sure that to Finn and Kurt she was just an unnaturally beautiful woman. And they just didn't know how dangerous.

She smiles sweetly at Finn, jumping up when he pushes through the door but halts a couple feet away when she sees their entwined hands. To any other person it would look like an ex-girlfriend hesitant that her ex-boyfriend had a new partner. On Santana's face, so quick it was gone in a flash, and in her mind, she was  _pissed_  that Finn had moved on to Rachel of all people. Seeing that she already knew who Rachel was, she was steadily unleashing a string of cuss words in Spanish in her mind even though she was smiling easily at them both.

"Finnocence!" She finally says. This close, the cold, sweet smell was stifling and pure malice radiates from Santana when she turns her cruel smile to Rachel then promptly dismisses her.

"Santana." Finn's voice is clipped as he frowns down at his ex-girlfriend. Rachel catches the brief look he shoots her before looking back at the woman in front of him. "Why are you here?"

Santana's thoughts continue with her mental tirade towards Rachel, switching to Hungarian as she turns her eyes back to Finn and smiles widely. His heartbeat stutters and she get this smug look on her face, her eyes flicking momentarily to Rachel and back.

"I need an excuse to see my favourite boy?"

Finn snorts. "Actually, you're not welcome here, and I'm pretty sure I stopped being your favourite boy when you crashed your car into a divider and left me unconscious in the middle of the street when I was flown from the car."

She's aware that Kurt is still in the room and watching their exchange with an amused expression so that's really the only reason she doesn't have her hands around Santana's neck right now. She narrows her eyes at the vampire who's now looking at Finn with a hurt pout on her features.

And she's singing the Macarena in her mind.

"Finn. I've told you a million times that I was sorry."

 _Bullshit. You left town the very day Finn went in the hospital. A phone call a week later_ does not _suffice an apology._  Kurt's clipped thoughts do not betray the calm look he's adopted and she feels a bit better knowing that the Latina isn't that well liked.

Finn sighs and turns to the door behind them and yanks it open, Rachel's hand still secure in his. "Yeah, no. I really don't have anything to say to you so I'd appreciate it if you could just leave."

Santana's eyes narrow at Finn's dismissal and her internal tirade morphs into snarls and a few choice, colourful words for Rachel, turning her hard eyes again onto her.

"Who's this?"

Rachel doesn't bother to respond, because Santana knows who she is, she's just stalling.

"My girlfriend." Finn pipes up, his fingers squeezing hers. Kurt cheers internally.

"Girlfriend? Well, isn't she a doll?"

Rachel already dislikes the vampire, on principle alone, but she genuinely  _hates_  her now.

She's always been petite and was always able to pass as a high school freshman more often than Quinn or Artie could. Her size usually played to her advantage because people usually assumed she was just another little girl.

Santana was the distinct opposite to her, curvy where Rachel was not, pale caramel-coloured skin as opposed to Rachel's olive-tone, blood-sucking leech whereas Rachel was not. And when Finn introduces her as his girlfriend, Santana's eyes flash ruby red before going back to brown.

Kurt's behind them, so he wouldn't have seen. She chances a look at Finn and his eyes are like hard slits glaring the female still standing in front of them. Did  _he_  notice?

"Not that anything Finn does should concern you Santana, but I believe he's asked you to leave." Finn glances at her, his eyes widening slightly and Santana shrieks mentally, letting something slip about Finn's blood.

Rachel bristles and looks over at Kurt quickly to see his wide-eyed interest as he watches them.

_Leave now. Or I will seriously kick your ass into next year! You're done using Finn as your personal snack bar._

Santana's mental block is steady and Rachel's pretty sure now that someone has told Santana how to at least try and keep her out. She's not sure if she hears her but then the vampire grins maliciously and puts her hand on her hips. "She's a feisty one, isn't she?"

"Santana, just get out, will you?" Finn says, irritation seeping into his voice.

"Fine. I'll go." She shrugs and steps around Finn, her fingers brushing across his chest as she does. "But I'm sure we'll see each other again soon." She looks to Rachel as she says this, wiggling her fingers in goodbye as she slips through the door. Finn kicks it closed.

Finn quickly looks over at his brother then back to Rachel, pulling on her hand. "You OK?"

She inhales, disliking the sweet, cloying taste on her tongue and nods.

"Your eyes flashed blue just now. I don't know if Santana saw."

She's positive Santana saw; she doesn't know everything about Rachel so her appearing at Finn's apartment was most likely due to the fact that Finn now carries her scent with him. She's also pretty sure Santana is the vampire she and Quinn sensed at the frat party and who Artie had suspected in the carelessly disposed kills.

She's not sure of the vampire's game, but she has the strange feeling it involves Finn.

"Honestly, I always thought Santana was evil. I wouldn't put it past her to be a bride of Satan." Kurt interrupts, muttering as he gets up to go to the kitchen.

She chuckles and tugs Finn towards him, silently suggesting Kurt should make them some tea, and then call Blaine.

"Rachel, would you like some tea? Finn isn't a fan and I'm thinking he'll want something strong after seeing that witch."

Finn chuckles and sits at the counter and she leans on her elbows beside him. "I'll have some dude."

"Yes, please." She smiles and Finn threads his fingers through hers. Kurt nods at them and turns back to the counter, pulling out his phone.

"I'm not even sure why Kurt let her in. It's not like he's a fan of hers. He of all people know how everything turned out, because of her."

"You still haven't told me what that was." She settles herself on the stool beside him, her fingers rubbing soothing circles on his shoulder. She bites her lip and looks sideway at Kurt. He invited Santana in really so she could see that Finn was better off with her gone, and happier with Rachel. She averts her eyes before he turns around and sighs as Noah approaches the apartment, chomping on pizza and thinking about a frat party that night he was determined to invite Finn to.

The door bangs open and he walks in with a guitar strung over his shoulder and balancing two boxes of pizza.

"Rachel! Hey there sexy. I figured you'd be here, you and Huddy can share a veggie lovers." Noah grins and tosses a box towards them. Finn makes a face and gives her a doubtful look. He sighs and pushes the box away.

"Gentleman. And ladies." Noah rubs his hands together and winks at Kurt who flips him off. "Party at Alpha Phi Alpha house tonight! No complaints, we're going."

"Dude, you would not believe who was just here."

Noah stacks two more slices on top of each other and shoves them into his mouth. "Who?" He manages to ask.

"Santana."

Noah was totally immersed in enjoying his pizza, humming an Aerosmith song as he chews. As soon as Santana is mentioned, his mind flashes back to a dark night, long ago, a dented SUV in the middle of the road and Finn sprawled on the floor, bathed in the headlights, blood seeping into his shirt and his leg bent unnaturally.

Noah swallows slowly and places the pizza back in the box, the images from that night flashing in technicolor in his mind. Startled, her fingers grip tighter onto the edge of the counter, little dents forming in the wood.

She looks at Kurt and then at Finn but it doesn't seem like either of them are thinking about that. There's something more about that night. Something Noah saw but doesn't want to believe.

Finn nudges her with his shoulder, tugging her from Noah's mind. "You wanna go? To the frat party?"

She searches his eyes, and he's really asking her if she's alright to go to a party. She nods, her eyes flitting briefly to his brother and best friend. "Sure. Is it OK if I invite Quinn and Artie though? They've been on me about ditching them for you guys too often."

"Quinn? Hell yes!" Noah perks up and Finn and Kurt snicker at him.

"Quinn? How sure are you she won't work her mojo on these two? Or people at the party?" Finn leans in close to whisper, his breath wafting over her ear. She shivers, knowing that wasn't his intent and smiles as his eyes darken. His skin heats up as her finger traces the outline of his jaw.

Noah coughs uncomfortably and Kurt grips the cup of tea tighter in his hands. She pulls away from Finn, tamping her lust as both Noah's and Kurt's minds start picturing ideas Finn may have a problem with. She swallows her laugh as they both stare at her in horror.

She needs to have the other two there and not because they feel left out. Santana's on the prowl, and she's almost positive she has friends around with her. She's after Finn, yes. But who's to say she won't use Noah and Kurt to get to him?

"Quinn will behave." She leans over and grabs the pizza, pulling out a slice and holding it to his mouth. He grimaces and shakes his head.

"Meat." Finn grabs the box Noah has and steals two pieces, stuffing them into his mouth as Kurt watches with a disgusted look on his face.

"Neanderthal." He mutters.

"Is Blaine coming tonight Kurt?"

He blushes and nods furiously. "I just texted him. Let's hope these two can manage to behave themselves for one night."

Noah belches in reply and Finn punches him on the shoulder.

Rachel laughs at them, but her mind is elsewhere. She doesn't think Blaine is part of Santana's entourage, but until she knew for certain, she'd have to keep a closer eye on these three men.

* * *

Quinn is practically vibrating with anticipation when they meet them outside the frat house, Artie's in his wheelchair grinning broadly at them, a cheery strawberry-blonde beauty standing beside him. Sugar's thoughts are on Artie and wanting to go back to their apartment. Quinn has a hungry look on her face as she watches them. Sugar sways a little on her feet and runs her hand lovingly over Artie's shoulder and he looks up at her and smiles.

_Quinn. Stop._

Quinn pouts and stomps her foot. Feeding on the sexual energy of two people in love is almost euphoric; Rachel herself has never done that, but the feeling and taste lingers on Quinn's thoughts often enough and if Artie and Sugar aren't careful, they'll fall prey to Quinn. Again.

"Hello." Noah walks up to Quinn and runs his hand over his Mohawk, smiling wolfishly at her.

"Quinn, you remember Noah."

"Puck." He corrects and winks.

Finn laughs and throws his arms over Rachel's shoulder nodding at the others. He leans forward and shakes Sugar's hand when Artie introduces her.

 _Kurt doesn't know his boyfriend is a vampire. They don't know about us, only Finn._ Sugar hasn't met any other supernaturals beside them, and she's not known for having a verbal filter, so she doesn't want something, anything to slip out by mistake.

Artie is already staring at the curly-haired man as he and Kurt approach and Quinn watches him closely.

"Blaine, this is Quinn." Quinn smiles warmly when she shakes his hand, her eyes and emotions giving nothing away. As she introduces Blaine to Artie the two men hold hands a little longer. Kurt's eyes flit to Sugar and back to the two men and he frowns. Rachel leans over and squeezes his shoulder but the smile he gives her doesn't meet his glasz eyes. As they step away, Blaine tucks Kurt closer to his side, and she doesn't miss the happy smile spreading across his face.

"What was that about?" Finn murmurs to her.

"What was what about?"

"Artie and Blaine."

She looks up at the man beside her and back between the two men in question. With both vampires so close together, did Finn suspect something? Or see any similarities between the two?

She shrugs and squeezes his hand around her shoulders. "Who knows."

Blaine's secret isn't hers to tell, nor Artie's, but they do have something in common. She trusts Blaine will tell Kurt as soon as he was able to.

_I met Santana today. Our elusive vampire. And Finn's ex-girlfriend._

Artie and Quinn stare at her when she pushes the image of the Latina into their minds. Artie's face looks guarded and he glances at Blaine and Kurt.

"There are too many of us around, and from what we've seen, Santana doesn't look like one to play nice." He murmurs quietly.

_She doesn't. I'm sure she's still pissed after today. She'll love my head on a platter._

"So, shall we?" Noah holds his arm out to Quinn and a breathy laugh floats over them as she takes it.

"You're sure this is a good idea?" Finn asks again, watching Quinn warily as they follow behind.

"No." She laughs. "But it wouldn't hurt to enjoy it while it lasts."

Finn nods begrudgingly and presses his lips to her hair, walking beside her as they approached the door of the frat house, music loud and thumping from inside.

_I'm sure we'll see her again. And I won't be surprised if its here tonight._

Artie's face is hard.

* * *

She's sitting on Finn's lap, pressed close beside him to keep her headache at bay as Quinn and Noah, Kurt and Blaine move among the people on the dance floor. Sugar is on Artie's lap and he looks genuinely happy that she's there. Finn's nursing a bottle of Mike's Hard Lemonade, playing with the skin at her lower back, his lips close to her ear as he whispers things he wants to do to her the next time they were alone, the tingling charge from his touch seeping into her skin. She knows Quinn is trying to keep herself in check but with this many drunken sorors and horny frat boys it's next to impossible. And if Quinn gets out of hand, even with Finn there, things were bound to get interested.

Noah seems quite taken with Quinn, which she suspects is part of the blonde's charm. Quinn, however, seems to be just as enamoured with Noah since she's spent the majority of the night either in his lap or pressed close to him on the dance floor. Noah only has eyes for her, and its a whole lot strange since Quinn has yet to kiss him. Quinn's singing the song blaring over the speakers and ignoring her.

Kurt and Blaine are wrapped up in each other, knocking back tequila shots, at least Blaine is tossing them into the frat boy's cup behind them and Kurt giggles happily as he leans forward and presses their foreheads together. There's a kind of magnetic pull between them, that she's only seen with Tina and Mike and Artie and Sugar. She doesn't want to think how that will end, because Sugar will someday die, and so will Kurt. Sugar's accepted her reality and she loves Artie in spite of it. But Kurt doesn't know, and something tells her when Blaine finally tells him, everything will change.

Finn kisses her cheek. "Come back to me, where'd you go?"

She stares at him in the low light, bodies pressing in around them. His eyes look like pools of liquid honey as he stares back and she leans forward and presses her lips to the dimple in his cheek. She runs her fingers through his hair and drags her lips across his lips and to his ear.

"Still here, and I'm not wearing any panties." She purrs.

She licks her way down his neck, settling her lips over his pulse point as it thrums when simultaneous shouts from both Artie and Blaine alert her to visitors outside. Quinn turns in Noah's arms, her eyes silver in the darkness, head cocked to the side.

Rachel feels a ripple of lust go around the room and Finn presses her closer to his chest. People around them scream in wanton abandon and she's almost sure there's a naked couple upstairs. Under the smell of weed, alcohol, cigarettes and throw up, the cold sweetness assaults her nose and she lifts her head, staring out the windows to the woods at the back of the frat house.

Outside at the treeline, Santana has a junior pressed up against her in the darkness, lips firmly attached to the brunette's neck as she feeds. Two other vampires, a blonde female and a lanky, messy-haired male are with her, surveying the crowd of partygoers like they're at a buffet. Two other bodies lay hidden in the darkness, bodies pale and drained.

Rachel projects this to their minds: Blaine stiffens and stops breathing, Artie clutches Sugar closer to him and Quinn casts worried eyes towards Noah and Kurt who's staring at Blaine from the corner of his eye. Finn pushes her back to see her eyes, and follows her gaze to Artie. He frowns, looking around at the rest of their group.

 _Let's just go talk to them._ She suggests. Quinn doesn't look convinced and Artie is chastising himself for bringing Sugar here. Blaine looks at them nervously, glancing between Kurt to her. Despite the couple shots of tequila he's had, Kurt's too interested as he looks between them, sensing a change.

_Blaine, you stay here and watch the others. Distract, Kurt. Artie, you're gonna have to ditch the chair._

He nods and whispers the plan to Sugar. She nods and gets up, moving to sit beside Finn on the couch.

"Hey, Finn. I've got to go talk to Quinn and Artie."

"No silent talking?" He jokes.

Her smile is grim when she shakes her head.

"Everything alright?"

"I'm not sure." Her eyes flicker to the window again and Finn's eyes follow her.

"Rachel? What is it?"

"Just - keep an eye on your brother and Noah." She touches Sugar's shoulder reassuringly. "Sugar isn't just a pretty face, she knows."

Finn nods at the girl beside him and his arms tighten around Rachel's waist. "Will you tell me, not know, but - tell me? Please?"

She nods and presses her lips quickly to his, nodding to Blaine as she follows Artie through the mass of bodies as he rolls out the back door and ditches the chair. Quinn joins them a second later, her eyes flats orbs of silver as she stares toward the three vampires leaning easily in the darkness.

"Hiya hobbit." The Latina steps forward blithely, smile wide and lips stained red.

"Why are you here Santana?"

"Artie, right?" Santana grins and looks back at the other two behind her. "What? A girl can't hang out at a frat party? Sample the goodies?" She licks her fingers and kicks the dead body of the girl towards them.

Artie bristles beside her.

"Ah, what's wrong Artiekins? Afraid of a little blood?"

Quinn laughs lightly and steps closer.  _Whatever I throw at them might actually resonate inside the house. Unless you want to start a sex riot, we need a plan._  "What are you three little kiddies doing out so late at night?"

Santana snarls. "Kiddies?"

She's older than Quinn, by at least fifty years. Brittany, the blonde, is younger than she and Artie and Sebastian, the lanky, scowling man is not much older than Blaine. As soon as she reads this Santana starts singing the Macarena again, Sebastian is reciting the chemical chart and Brittany is reciting colours of the rainbow, effectively blocking their thoughts from her.

_Someone's taught them how to shield their thoughts._

"Why are you here?" She repeats Artie's question.

"You're a mind-reader, shouldn't you know?" Sebastian asks, stalking forward, his hands behind his back. His eyes pass over her body and he smiles lasciviously at her and then at Quinn.

He grins at them and turns back to Santana. "They always say having a succubus means you'll die happy when you go." He turns back around and waggles his eyebrows at her. "But a dhamphyr, such a rarity, and the best of both worlds. I'd really love to test that theory."

Rachel frowns at him.

Moving too fast for him to react, she smacks him across the face and his body flies back, breaking several shrubs before he stops at the foot of a tree. Both Brittany and Santana snarl as Sebastian jumps to his feet and rushes towards them. Brittany leaps at her and Artie moves before Rachel can, grabbing the blonde's ponytail as she blurs past.

Santana shrieks and lunges forward but Rachel sidesteps her and Quinn kicks out sending the vampire toppling to the ground. Sebastian kicks Quinn in the back and Rachel punches him backwards again before spinning around to block Santana's outstretched hands as she claws at her. Santana is strong, and she almost gets a good hold onto her before she twists out of her grasp, using the vampire's momentum to send her headlong into a tree.

Artie has his hands around Brittany's neck and she whimpers, ruby red eyes fearful as she looks at Santana. Artie turns his head and rolls his neck, his face dangerous as he stares at Santana. Quinn already has Sebastian in a headlock and all she needs to do is twist her hands just so and he'll be headless.

Santana snarls, poised for attack again, breathing hard, her eyes narrowed to slits as she glares at them.

"Let her go." She hisses at Artie. Brittany whimpers as his fingers press deeper into her throat.

_Why are you here?_

In her rage, Santana's forgotten to shield her mind but before Rachel has a chance to read her Santana turns her eyes back to her and grins evilly. "I know what you're trying to do." She taps the side of her head and wags her finger in front of her. She's reciting some Shakespearean play, line by line.

"Keep still pretty boy or you'll lose your head." Quinn kisses Sebastian's hair and winks at Santana.

_Don't piss her off any more, she's blocking me._

"The sooner you tell us why you're here, the sooner you can run away with your tails between your legs." Artie growls, his eyes flat onyx and hard.

"You've already left several bodies drained and tossed aside. And three more tonight. Cruel and careless. You keep that up and pretty soon you won't be able to find get dinner so easily."

Santana turns her head lazily towards him. "Oh grow a pair. How can you not want to hunt humans? You're a vampire for crying out loud!"

"Leave now and I won't have to kill your pretty little friend here."

Santana's eyes flicker to Brittany and without reading her mind Rachel already knows they're in love, if its even possible, she can  _taste_  and feel their magnetic pull. She walks over and runs her finger lovingly over the blonde's face. Her fingers tingle as the vampire goes limp in Artie's hand. Brittany doesn't need to shield her mind, there's not much there but extreme devotion and love for Santana. She recognizes the euphoria from Quinn's memories and a shiver runs down her spine.

She turns back to Santana. "I don't know why you're here. I don't know why you want Finn. But you can't have him. And I swear, if you even think of hurting him, I will kill you."

Santana looks back at Brittany, pliant and doe-eyed as she stands suspended in Artie's grip. Sebastian could barely move as Quinn strokes her fingers over his jaw, passing them over his lips and he stood there, slack-jawed and murmuring gibberish; his mind held nothing of interest.

Santana's the real threat here, and Rachel is pretty sure if it came down to the two of them, face to face her chances were slim.

"Artie will release her and we'll let you go if you leave."

"And stay far away from us." Artie adds.

Santana's eyes narrow into identical orbs of hate and she nods once. The minute Brittany's body slips downwards from Artie'grasp, Santana darts forward, catching the blonde in her arms. Quinn shoves Sebastian towards them and wiggles her fingers goodbye.

Rachel watches them as Santana pushes Sebastian ahead of them, ruby red pinpoints glinting in the dark before disappearing into the night.

"They'll be back. And pissed."

"Yes." Rachel turns around and looks at them. "There's something about the night of Finn's crash." She's told them all she knows, which isn't much. "Santana was driving when Finn was thrown from the car. Noah remembers something, but either he's too afraid to think about it clearly or he just doesn't understand what he saw."

"What do you think it was?"

She turns back to the darkness again, the unease creeping over her. "I don't know, but Santana used to feed from Finn."

From inside the party, Blaine was trying to calm down Kurt, who was demanding to know where everyone else had gone. With one lingering look at the trees behind them she starts back towards the house. Artie moves towards the discarded bodies, and Quinn follows him without a word.

Finn is standing beside Noah and Kurt, his arms crossed over his chest as he stares at Blaine, he turns around and sees her and pushes through the crowd towards her. She doesn't want the questions tonight and she's sure Finn has several. She takes his hand and leads him down the corridor, towards a bathroom she knows is still empty.

She shoves him inside and against the counter, crushing her lips to his before he can speak. He moans and pushes his hands in her hair, bending forward as she slides to her knees, unbuckling his pants as she does. She wraps her lips around him, her tongue stroking, feeling him hardening in her mouth. He fists his hands in her hair, watching her eyes as she pulls him deeper, her tongue teasing as his hips buck jaggedly towards her.

"Shit, Rach, babe-" Finn's head falls back against the mirror and he groans. He leans forward and pulls her to her legs, flipping them around and dragging his hands over her thighs as he pushes her skirt up. He kisses her hard when he pushes inside her, swallowing her moan.

She doesn't want to think about Santana. Doesn't want to think about the darkness when she touched the vampire's mind or the cold, sweet smell that haunts her. She wraps her legs around Finn's waist, pressing their chests together, her lips close to his as she pulls his essence into her.

* * *

She really should give Kurt more credit, he's smart.

Just like Finn, he's very perceptive and on more than a few occasions, and especially since the party at the frat house three nights ago, she catches an errant thought of his as he watches her. She has to remind herself that he's not Finn and she can't react the same way, like she does around Quinn and Artie. Finn's blissful silence makes it too easy for her to forget and whenever they're sitting together, pressed skin to skin, she likes to lose herself in the normalcy.

Noah, thankfully, has remained blissfully ignorant.

So when it blows up in her face with Kurt, she's expecting him to react differently that Finn. And Kurt does not disappoint.

She should have seen it coming. They were on the couch watching an old teen movie and Finn kept kissing her hair, or tracing her cheek with his fingers. She was almost ready to drag him into his bedroom and kick Kurt out. Kurt wasn't too pleased in being a third wheel, but since Blaine had gone out with Artie, Finn's brother spends his time throwing popcorn or tsking as he looks at over them.

_I swear if you two do not stop being so sweet I'm going to sprinkle flour over you and bake you into a pie._

She chuckles and hits Finn lightly on his shoulder. "Your brother thinks we're sweet enough to be dessert."

She's wrapped around Finn, her head against his chest with his arm thrown over her as he runs his fingers through her hair but then his hand pauses as his laughter cuts off the same time Kurt's thoughts screech to a halt.

He didn't say that out loud.

She glances over at Kurt and sits up so quickly the bowl of popcorn falls from his hands to the floor as he stares at her in shock. He looks from her to his brother and the apologetic look on Finn's face is enough to confirm whatever suspicions floating around Kurt's head.

Usually, if someone starts to suspect something was off about their trio, Rachel would let the others know and Quinn would attempt to make them sleepy and then suggest some explanation for whatever it is they thought they saw. And on the rare occasion that didn't work, they'd just leave. Artie was smart enough with their investments that they had houses in almost all the cities in several countries. Disappearing for periods of time was easy.

"Kurt." She starts and his eyes widen as he stares at her.

She's never tried to do the quiet suggestion with someone's mind she's this familiar with. It should be easier, but she's not as strong as Quinn is when it comes to manipulating people's emotions when its not for her own benefit. Beside her Finn's heartbeat stutters then starts beating faster as he looks between them, as if he's unsure who to go to first.

She wants to trust Kurt, he's Finn's brother and if he trusts him then it should be good enough for her. But she knows all too well how humans can react when they're faced with some _thing_  they can't understand, or doesn't believe exists.

It's usually why they keep to themselves, keep a low profile. She doesn't want to hurt Kurt but if it comes down to it, she'll always do what she needs to survive.

She stares at Kurt as she tries to pull him under, clouding his thoughts with sleep.

"Rachel? What are you doing?"

Kurt blinks slowly as the haze takes over his mind, but he grips firmly onto the memory of the frat party and what he's not sure he saw. He gets up and staggers towards the kitchen, his hands slapping against the wall as he moves. Finn looks at her and stands, holding his hands out as he approaches his brother slowly.

"Kurt -"

"No! Fi-," He slurs and presses his hand to his forehead, waving the other in front of him. He shakes his head as he looks up and freezes when his eyes meet hers.

In the mirror on the hallway wall beside the kitchen where Kurt stands swaying on his feet, her eyes glow azure.

 _"Finn! What the_ fuck _did you bring into our house?"_


	7. six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So, big brother Kurt gets re-introduced to his brother's girlfriend and people are starting to realize that the things that go bump in the night may be a lot more real than their storybooks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Warnings for some darkness, a little lemony goodness and please don't hate me for messing with your favourite Gleeks.

Of course Kurt takes the idea that she's standing in his living room with glowing blue eyes and  _inside_ his  _head_ about as well as a cat takes to water. He freezes in her stare as Finn approaches him.

"Rachel. STOP!" Finn hollers. He grips onto Kurt's shoulders and glares back at her. His brother's fingers are slack on his arm as he sways on his feet, his eyes wide with terror but he can't break his gaze from Rachel's unless she lets him.

"Finn -,"

"No! Rachel. This is my brother, whatever  _the fuck_  you're doing to his mind,  _stop_!"

She sighs and turns her eyes away from Kurt to Finn. The minute she does, Kurt crumbles to the floor and Finn catches him, turning from her to his brother's unconscious body.

"What's wrong with him?" He asks as his fingers worry over Kurt's neck, breathing a sigh of relief when he finds his pulse; it's there but it's beating a bit too fast.

"He's fine. He's asleep." She murmurs quietly, the images and thoughts from Kurt's mind swirling at the forefront of hers as she stares at the two men.

Kurt is very perceptive.

Finn hoists his brother into his arms and places gently him on the couch. He stands up and looks at her. His eyes are hard as he does, hands crossed over his chest. She stares back at him, wishing she could touch his mind; his silence is frustrating as he stares at her.

"What did you do?"

She sighs and runs her hands over her face. She walks towards Finn and his eyes follow her movements before he steps between her and his brother on the couch. She stops.

"Nothing dangerous. I tried to put him to sleep. Well." She gestures to Kurt now snoring lightly on the couch. "He'll be alright, he might be a little confused when he wakes up though."

"But why? Why were you doing that? Your eyes were glowing blue again, not to mention the hair blowing thing and I've never been," he pauses and takes a deep breath, "I wasn't even afraid for myself..." He trails off, his eyes flickering to his brother and then back to her.

Finally Finn was acting like he was supposed to act, cautious. He just wasn't worried about himself.

She sighs and again tries to step closer towards him. Finn holds his hand out, silently asking to her to stay where she was. She rocks back onto her feet and then goes to sit on the chair near the doorway.

"Finn, he basically figured me out as – something. On some level, he  _knows_ , he realizes that I'm different. And its not just me; he has an idea that there's something strange about about Artie and Quinn. He also realizes that its the same thing off about Santana."

She stops herself before she mentions Blaine. Kurt needs to know, but she isn't supposed to be the one to tell them.

"Santana?" Finn looks confused.

She nods and he huffs out a breath, rubbing his hands over the scruff on his jaw. Finn looks back at the sleeping man and then sits down on the seat opposite him. He doesn't say anything, just stares at his brother's sleeping profile.

"Please don't do that again." He murmurs. "Kurt's all I have left as family."

It's silent in the room for too long before she speaks.

"What do you mean?"

"Our parents. They passed two years ago, car accident. My father died in the war when I was two and Kurt's mother passed away when he was eight. Cancer. Our parents got married when we were thirteen. Kurt's older but his dad made me promise to always look after him." Finn says quietly. He's rambling, his hands fidget in his lap then he pushes them through his hair and looks at her with narrowed eyes.

Sure, he's worried about his brother's safety, yet he's dated a vampire and now he has a succubus in the room. At least now he's being careful.

"I'm sorry. About your parents." She says quietly. "But I'm sorry for what I had to do to Kurt."

"You can trust him. You trust me, so why can't you trust him?"

"Finn, it's not always easy for others to learn that people like me exist. And I use the term 'people' loosely. I told you before, I may look and act human, but I'm far from it. I was born a dhamphyr. I don't know why it is you're so relaxed around me but you can't know if Kurt will react the same."

"Give him a chance, Rachel. I mean, Sugar knows, right?"

"Yes, only because Artie was attracted to her and Quinn made her literally jump him one evening when they were supposed to be having study practice."

A reluctant smile pulls up the corner of Finn's mouth. "That's not so bad, right? They're happy together."

"Now. Because Quinn manipulations awakened only lust in Sugar. In other supernaturals that feeling is magnified, sexual hunger is one thing, physical hunger added to that, for Artie, its a very bad idea. He almost fed on Sugar."

Finn stares at her and then looks back at his brother.  _What_  is he thinking?

"I've always wondered about that."

She answers before he asks. "No, Artie doesn't feed on humans. Never has, but it doesn't mean the bloodlust isn't there."

Finn scratches at the back of his head. "So, how does he, you know?"

"Animals. The blood blank. Its not the same thing, but it satisfies him for awhile."

"But  _you_  eat food, like human food. And you're part vampire."

She rubs her palms slowly, choosing her words carefully. "I eat human food, yes. But its routine, it doesn't satisfy me like it does you. I can drink water, wine, but the taste, the feeling of someone's essence, that's what satisfies me."

Finn just watches her, unblinking.

She continues. "For Quinn, its different. The only human thing she can actually drink is water or wine. Wine makes her charms more, potent. And Artie, all he can imbibe easily is water and that's because its nothing, it doesn't quench his thirst, doesn't sate his appetite, its just there because its there. It has no use to him. They're both skilled at hiding the fact that they don't really eat, its just for show; you'll notice we don't really have guests at our apartment."

He nods slowly.

"What you did to Kurt, can Quinn or Artie do that?"

"Just Quinn. She's had years of practice, so its easier for her to-," Finn's eyes become guarded again so she stops talking, touching her hand to her mouth as she looks apologetically at him. She gets up and moves slowly to kneel beside him, tentatively putting her hand on his thigh.

"I'm sorry. But Kurt already knows too much, without even knowing he knows it. When he puts it all together, and he will, it may be dangerous for me. I've already put you guys in enough danger as it is and-,"

"What kind of danger?" He interrupts, his eyes searching hers. "What happened at the frat house?"

She hesitates and he covers her hand with his then pushes it off his leg. His eyes slip closed and he drops his head back on the couch.

"Should I go?"

He sighs and opens his eyes.

"No." He says quietly.

She nods once and retreats to the other corner of the apartment, resigned to wait until Kurt wakes up. Finn's not moving but he's not really looking at her or talking to her either. So she's just going to wait.

* * *

She blurs from one end of the room to the next, pausing every few minutes when Kurt has a conscious thought. He's deep under, Finn shaking his shoulder doesn't wake him and she doesn't want to attempt to touch his mind again because, well, Finn doesn't exactly want her near his brother. And she doesn't trust herself to try again. She contemplates calling Quinn but until Finn's upset with her enough, why make it worse?

An hour into waiting, Kurt's low moan pulls her from her thoughts and she pauses near the front door and stares at him.

Finn leans over his brother as Kurt puts a hand to his forehead. "Ow."

He's okay. A bit of a headache, but his suspicions aren't screaming in his mind. She just has to wait now and see how this goes.

"How're you feeling, dude?" Finn helps him to sit up and Kurt slowly swings his feet onto the floor, lowering his head into his hands and groaning.

"My head feels like I just went a round with Ali  _and_  Foreman. Jesus."

Finn chuckles softly and glances over at her quickly, his hands squeezing his brother's shoulder.

"Ugh. My head." Kurt pushes his fingers against his temples. "What happened?"

Finn doesn't answer right away and Kurt hasn't acknowledged her yet so she says nothing.

"What do you remember?"

Memories flit across Kurt's mind as he tries to recall the last thing he remembers. He keeps rubbing his fingers against the side of his head and her back stiffens when the image of her glowing blue eyes finally registers to him again.

"Rachel. Where's she?" He asks cautiously.

"I'm here."

His head snaps up and swivels around at her voice and his fingers find his brother's arm. A myriad of accusations flicker across his mind and they all seem to centre on psionics, mind-readers, psychics or genies. He's ignored the more dangerous of ideas, but he suspects whatever she is, its different than Artie. She sees Blaine's and Santana's faces too. He tilts his head to the side as he regards her.

"What are you?"

"I don't know what you mean."

Kurt frowns and turns to his brother, pointing an accusing finger in her direction. "She  _read_  my mind." He turns back to her. "Earlier tonight, you _read_  my mind!  _How_  is that? Huh? Like, sometimes I can  _feel_  you in my mind?"

She doesn't answer and he whirls back to his brother.

"Honestly, Finn! What's with you and being attracted to strange women?" Kurt throws his hands up in the air then gets up and stalks behind the couch, keep a wary eye on her.

"I mean, Santana is just a Grade A bitch, but – but, Rachel is actually some kind of _psychic_! God only knows what she's heard. Blackmail won't be good for my bank account, you know."

Psychic. Huh.

She can work with that. But one look at the conflicted look on Finn's face tells her this won't be the case.

"You can trust him. And I don't want to hide anything from my brother." He pleads again.

Kurt pauses his internal seething momentarily as Finn's statement registers. "What? Tell me what?"

Finn's eyes plead with her and against her better judgment, she nods.

Kurt narrows his eyes at her and puts a hand on his hip. "Listen here woman, if you're some kind of hippie trying to seduce my stepbrother, I won't have it. He can be rather thick at times, but you can't fool me."

"Gee, Kurt. Thanks for the vote of confidence." Finn mutters. His brother ignores him.

"I can tell you. But maybe it'll be easier if you see for yourself."

"See what?"

She look at Finn and he nods again. Before Kurt can blink she's beside him, the umbrella leaning against the kitchen wall in her hand, the heavy bookcase that used to stand behind him in the other.

Kurt looks around wildly and shrieks when he sees her standing behind him, falling over his feet as he tries to scramble backwards over the couch and ends up sitting almost on his brother's lap.

"She's not going to hurt you, Kurt."

Kurt turns around to him and scowls. "Finn. She just moved across the room in the blink of an eye! And she can  _lift_  that bookcase! You  _need Puck's help to do that!"_

He turns worried eyes to her, "Are you on steroids?"

She knows its not a laughing matter but still. She has to smile.

"Wait." He holds up a hand and points to her again, turning to his brother. "Does this have anything to do with your browser history on vampires the other day." He whirls back to face her and clamps both hands onto his neck.

" _Oh my God!_  Are you a vampire?"

Despite the incredulity of their situation, she laughs. This was not the way she expected her night to go. Kurt was talking a mile a minute, his thoughts scattered all over the place now. He wasn't scared per se, and he wasn't frightened for himself, he was more worried about Finn.

She had newfound respect for the both of them. Albeit misguided, they both cared more about each other than themselves.

"I'm not a vampire, Kurt. But your suspicions are close enough." She replaces the bookcase to its corner and walks slowly to place the umbrella in the stand. She stands in the centre of the room, facing both men, her hands clasped in front of her, nonthreatening.

"Well, you walk around in daylight, and you eat food, so maybe your being a vampire is a bit far-fetched." Kurt sits closer to Finn, blocking her from his brother and taps his cheek thoughtfully. Finn rolls his eyes.

"What are you then?"

"I'm a halfling. Half-vampire, half-succubus. They call me dhamphyr."

Kurt blinks at her, then looks around at his brother. He gets up and walks around the couch, carefully avoiding her. She smirks to herself as he rummages through the fridge and kitchen drawers before walking back to the living room.

He sits across from her, thighs pressed close to his brother, a watchful eye on her reaction. He has garlic stuck into his pocket, a set of steel knives in both hands and two pieces of sticks he has crafted into a cross. Finn looks at her with wide eyes and she shrugs, nonplussed as to Kurt's nondescript weapons.

She grins and touches each in turn. "Not a full vampire, Kurt. I don't have the same weaknesses or thirst or blood like they do. And the sun doesn't harm me. My thirst is a bit more on the carnal side." She winks at Finn.

And just like his stepbrother, Kurt immediately thinks of something else.

 _"Finn_! Why in God's name did you bring a sex _demon_ into our house?" He backs up quickly from her, gripping his makeshift cross tight in his hands.

She tries to calm Kurt down and Finn tries to do the same but Kurt's mind is working overtime and all he's thinking about now are images of Finn going to hell and her drinking his blood as his body fades away to nothing.

She frowns disapprovingly and wrinkles her nose as he brandishes his 'weapons' again. "Really Kurt? Hell? I'm not Satan. Believe me, the person you should point those towards isn't me."

"Who then?" Finn asks, his eyes boring into hers.

She gets up and starts to pace the length of the apartment.

"She's starting to creep me out." Kurt whispers softly to Finn.

"Shhh!"

"I'm not the enemy here. Yes, I am dangerous Kurt." Her eyes flash blue again as if to reinforce her statement and he flinches. She nods to the items in his hands. "Those are all useless against me. Well, except the knife, but you can really hurt yourself or someone else waving that around."

"Listen, you aren't exactly human, so forgive me if I don't take your reassurance to heart." Kurt snaps.

"You think I'm the first supernatural you've met?" She holds Kurt' gaze again, listening as the memories of Artie, Blaine, Quinn and Santana bombard his thoughts. Finn stares confused between them.

 _Santana._ Kurt thinks, his eyes wide.

"Yes."

"Yes, what?" Finn demands.

"Is Santana like you?" Kurt asks in horror.

"Santana?" Finn echoes.

"Like me, no. Worse."

"Finn, you honestly have the worst track record with women." Kurt quips, glaring at him. "How worse?"

She's about to answer but then Noah's raunchy thoughts reach her and she frowns, tilting her head to the right. "Noah's coming."

Both men look towards the door and then back at her.

"You can hear him?" Kurt asks.

"I can hear his thoughts." She wrinkles her nose and then sighs, dropping her face into her hands. "Noah was by my apartment before he came here."

"Oh.  _Oh_." Finn says, his eyes alarmed.

"What is it?"

"Quinn was born a succubus too." She offers.

Noah is happy. Very happy, as he pushes the door open, rainwater dripping from his hair. He stops as he stares at the three of them, his eyes questioning as he looks at Kurt's paraphernalia.

"I miss something?"

"Good day, Puck?" Kurt smirks.

Noah grins, his mind immediately going to Quinn's mouth between his legs and Rachel jumps up, glaring between them. "Please, stop. I really don't need to know what you and my aunt have been doing all day."

"Me and your-  _what the fuck_?"

Kurt's actually laughing at her and she looks at Finn, somehow already knowing he's going to ask her to let Noah in on the secret as well.

Less than two weeks ago, it was just her, Quinn, Sugar and Artie. Now, she has three more people in her life.

* * *

"No one ever tells me anything!" Noah bemoans, a beer in his hands as he paces in front of Kurt and Finn sitting on the couch; she's perched on the island separating the kitchen and the living room, still a safe distance from the three humans.

Noah's not too disappointed, really. Apparently Quinn 'rocked his world' earlier and he was well sated, confident in the fact that he'd tired her out. He doesn't seem to be too perturbed that the woman he'd just slept with wasn't human. Clearly, he was like Finn in that aspect.

"The other day, before the frat party, I pictured, uh, me and you, um, doing stuff." He points to her with his beer, ignoring Finn's narrowed eyes glaring at him.

"What, you too?" Kurt squeaks.

She bites back a laugh when they turn all to stare at her.

"You both pictured  _doing stuff_  to Rachel? How?" Finn snaps.

"As much as I hate to admit it, the day of the frat party did creep me out. Attracted to a female." Kurt shudders. "But its not the first time I've felt randy hanging around you."

"Me either." Noah remarks, absentmindedly sipping his beer. "I'm surprised Huddy can keep his hands off you."

"Yea, well, I can't do to Finn what I can do to you two."

Noah and Kurt stare surprised at Finn. He rolls his eyes and glares defiantly back at them.

"You can't do the mind thing to him too?" Kurt asks, circling his fingers beside his head. She shakes her head at him.

"You can't get his dick hard and plant those fucking hot ideas in his head like you did us?"

"Puck." Finn warns.

She sends a ripple of lust towards them and Noah falls back against the wall, eyes closed and Kurt grips the couch cushion beneath him. Finn glares at them both and then turns lazy eyes towards her.

Once they calm down, Kurt fanning himself and Finn still glaring daggers around the room, she hops down from the island, smoothing her skirt.

"Finn's immune to me."

Noah whistles and Kurt looks - relieved. She frowns.

"Kurt, Blaine's on his way up." She says quietly.

Kurt frowns and shakes his head, a momentary flash of doubt flashing across his face and his thoughts. "You really need to give that mind-reading thing a break."

She shrugs as Blaine knocks at the door.

"It's kinda sexy though." Noah smirks. Finn tosses a cushion at him as he gets up and Noah dodges it, laughing. Finn walks to the kitchen, slamming the fridge door closed as he pulls out a bottle of beer. He glares at her when he feels her eyes on him.

Kurt gets up, pulling the door open to greet his boyfriend. He hugs Blaine tight, his eyes lingering on Rachel's as he questions the unnatural warmth of Blaine's skin.

 _Blaine, Kurt knows something's different. I've already told him about me, but I haven't said anything about you._ The curly-haired vampire nods slightly, pressing his lips to Kurt's forehead.

"Can we talk?" He murmurs. Kurt nods and pulls him towards his room as Blaine waves a greeting at the others as he follows behind. Noah sits on the couch, lost in his memories of Quinn and their heated tryst earlier. She tries to block his mind from hers, cringing at the vivid imagery he pulls up.

Kurt's as safe as he possibly can be with Blaine so while they talk she walks towards the kitchen where Finn stands, twisting the beer in his hands.

His eyes follow her as she comes in, stops and rests her palms on the counter top.

"You alright?"

He nods.

"Blaine's talking to Kurt, and I'm gonna leave, so I can, ah - give them some privacy."

Finn doesn't react.

"Alright then, I'm gonna go. Call me?"

Finn sighs and puts the bottle on the counter and then walks over to her, her fingertips tingling faintly as his pass over hers then he wraps his palm around her hands. "I'll come with you. We can talk too."

* * *

It's raining when they get outside. Finn links their fingers together and tugs her towards his truck, then stops and looks down at her. He presses her against his truck, frowning.

"Today was strange."

She nods in response, blinking as rainwater runs down her face.

His thumb rubs along her bare arm. "I don't like the idea of other men thinking about you like I do."

Was he jealous? She hadn't had the opportunity to feed from anyone else. Then again, she wasn't interested in anyone else who wasn't Finn.

He stares at her, his eyes dark and brooding before he crushes his lips to hers and she gasps, taken aback by the forcefulness of his kiss. He threads his fingers through her hair and pulls her head back roughly, slanting his mouth over hers as his tongue sweeps into her mouth. She whimpers and clutches tightly onto his shirt, ignoring the rain falling steadily around them.

"Finn -," She breaks away from him, breathing hard as fire churns in her belly.

"No," He growls. "No talking."

He claims her lips again, his kiss bruising in its intensity and wraps his hands around her small body, her softness pliant under his fingertips. They're still standing beside his truck and even though its raining, they're in full view of everyone.

She grasps the lapels of his jacket and spins with him, moving from his truck into the shadows beside his apartment building. Finn's lips are still on hers as if he hasn't realized their change of location and his fingers creep under her shirt, his nails scraping over her sides as heated tingles rush over her skin.

He flips her around, the hardness in his jeans pressing into her back, his lips attached to her neck as his hands pinch roughly at her breasts over her shirt. His other hand hikes up her skirt, dipping inside her panties as he turns her face sideways towards his, his lips hovering over hers as his fingers work her between her thighs.

Rachel tries to push her body backwards, but he holds her in place, their mouths inches apart as he presses his fingers to her wetness. She's stronger than him, so it would be easier for her to overpower him and press their mouths together but then the hand between her legs is moving away to unbuckle his belt and then his pants and Finn pushes himself inside her and his fingers are back on her secret spot.

It's pure, raw animalism as he takes her from behind and Rachel growls at his entry.

"Finn."

He grunts in acknowledgement, his hips rocking forward. "No feeding." He bites down hard onto her shoulder and she whimpers. "I want you as close to human as I can get you."

He's punishing her, she's sure.

He wraps his arms around her chest, keeping her lips close to his but avoiding her mouth, peppering light kisses along her jaw, softly biting every time she moans. His fingers are slick between her folds, pinching at her, spurred on by the movement of her hips pushing back at him and the soft mewls she's making.

She's not used to not being in control; her body warring for release and the urge to feed. Finn nips at her ear lobe, his hands slick between her legs, his eyes half-mast with pleasure as he stares down at her.

"Can you feel it?" He whispers against her skin.

She purrs in response, light tingles erupting over her body as he bends her forward, his hips pounding away at hers, their lower bodies slick with heat and the rain, every stroke sending sheer vibrations through their body from where they were joined. Her body burns where his fingers press into her skin, and she pushes back onto him, bucking, taking him deeper with every stroke. Harder. Faster. Heated and sensual and she can feel Finn quickly losing control.

He strokes deep and withdraws, teasing and pulsing, chuckling at her whimpers. He holds her firmly by the hips and plunges inside her again, her body going rigid as she drops her head forward, fingers crumbling pieces of the concrete from the wall she slumps against.

"Let go." He whispers against her hair, pulling her back up against his chest, licking from her neck to her ear.

Her clamps down around him, going pliant in his arms as she climaxes and pulls him over with her. They're completely soaked from the rain and he brushes her hair away from her face, pressing his lips to her cheek as her body ripples with aftershocks of her orgasm, his fingers tingling where they touch her skin.

"Do you feel that?" He asks again.

"Yes." She whispers, her voice hoarse.

He pulls himself from her and turns her around, wiping the water from her lips with his thumbs, his hands on either side of her face. He brushes her hair from her forehead, staring down at her, his face wet and beautiful in the moonlight.

"Let's get you home." He murmurs and kisses the side of her mouth.

He pulls away from her to tuck himself back into his pants and wraps his broad hands around her waist, tugging her back towards his truck. Her eyes sweep the night ahead of them then she watches him as he slips around to the driver's side of his truck. He tucks her into his side as he drives back towards her apartment, seemingly nonchalant to her querying gaze; what just happened back there?

She's never had to be wary of a human before. Finn intrigues her and deep down, a little part of her knows now that while he isn't dangerous, he's not good for her either, and when all this is over, he won't be the same.

That same small part of her tells her its her fault too.


	8. seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Where we find out a little more about who's who in this world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Introducing two new Gleeks here, and apparently creating some feels with the others. Warnings for darkness, a little bit of fluff, some citrus thrown in and a mixture of myths.

She's actually looking forward to some peace and quiet, some downtime to relax and try and wrap her head around the events of the day. With Finn beside her, it's easy, she can focus on just lying beside him, clear her mind and just breathe. They're in her apartment alone thankfully; Finn surprisingly doesn't mention Quinn, or what happened the last time he was here.

It doesn't feel like the same Finn.

She's not stupid enough to believe it's just her mind playing tricks on her; it  _is_  Finn, but, he's different.

The second she was inside the apartment, Finn's hands were on her again, insistent and rough, tugging her clothes from her. He'd thrown her onto the bed, burying his face between her legs and this time when she grabbed his face and dragged him up to her to press their lips together, he didn't resist, his energy flowing unbidden from him into her. She felt energized, recharged and _alive_  and Finn just falls asleep beside her, his fingers threaded through hers, tired and spent.

He seems more intense as of late, and he looks at her with more than just a question in his eyes. He's asleep now, but when he wakes up, what then?

Her phone starts to vibrate from inside her jacket pocket underneath Finn's clothes still in the living room and she knows when she answers it, her day will go from patched up to catastrophic inside a few seconds.

Why should be surprised though, really? Nothing good ever lasts, right?

Asleep, Finn looks nothing like the man who pressed her up against a wall outside in the darkness. He's sleeping easily, his chest rising and falling, scruffy jaw, long lashes dusting his freckled cheeks; the man is beautiful.

And she's pretty sure he's hiding something extremely important, and honestly, she doesn't even think he has a clue.

Her phone rings again. She knows before she even answers that Quinn is calling with very bad news.

"Yeah?"

" _You need to get to the parking lot near the library now_."

"What? Why?"

" _Artie just found a girl. She's been attacked_."

Crap.

She hurriedly gets dressed while her aunt explains to her what they've found. Artie seems pretty sure this is Santana's and her cronies' handiwork and she gets the impression both he and Quinn are regretting that they let them slip away before. She gets the ugly feeling twisting in her belly that tonight is the beginning of something much worse.

"Is she going to make it?" She asks Quinn.

" _Don't know. But that's not all, she wasn't alone. Her boyfriend's missing. And Artie isn't doing too well with all this blood. I really need your help._ "

"Fuck. Alright. On my way."

Finn's still fast asleep and snoring lightly when she goes back into the bedroom. She doesn't want to leave him but she can't  _not_  go. She scribbles a quick note to him and asks him not to leave before she gets back. They keep getting sidetracked whenever they plan to talk and now she's the one who wants answers.

Looking around her room, she hangs the silver charms by her window after ensuring it was securely locked and scatters salt grains underneath. She does the same for her bedroom door, hanging the small charms across the door frame and the silver bar along the floor, salt grains scattered in front of it. She's only had to proof her surroundings from a vampire just once and it had barely worked on Jesse. Artie was pissed and his hands were sore for three days when he'd tried to enter her room and the silver meshwork she'd placed over the doorknob had burned him.

While the charms wouldn't exactly stop a vampire, it would slow them down. The same for the salt, they'd need to count each grain scattered around them and it'd give their intended victim enough time to escape.

She really hopes Finn will have no use for the protection, but if Santana was on the prowl, it was better than nothing.

Before she leaves, she slips her mother's silver amulet around Finn's neck, the heavy charm resting just over his heart. She rarely wears it because as a supernatural herself, a vampire's charm wouldn't work on her. By itself, it offers little protection unless its bearer fully believes in its power. And once they do, they're immune to a vampire's charm and lure and they can't be touched without the vampire feeling physical pain.

She kisses the pendant and Finn's cheek before slipping from the apartment, listening to the sounds of the night as she runs towards Quinn and Artie. There's nobody around and she's really hoping their enemies stay far away.

* * *

She hears Artie's frantic mantra on repeat in his head the closer she gets to them. He's hungry, and the smell of freshly-spilled blood is wreaking havoc on his tentative control. Nothing Quinn throws at him will settle his urges and the image of him knelt beside the crimson pool gathering on the ground is all too real that the second she has him in sight he's almost bending down, lips pulled back in a snarl, eyes flat and black as his nostrils flare.

_ARTIE!_

He's almost so close to giving in to the bloodlust that  _she_  can taste it on her tongue, the taste too sweet, too heavy and too rich. The promise is deliciously sinful, however. It tastes wrong, but if he gives in, the sweetest ambrosia couldn't compare. She doesn't think she or Quinn, or even Sugar for that matter could bring him back from that.

_Please don't! Remember who you are._

She stops in front of him, her hand on his shoulder and he hesitates, staggering a little under the repulsion she can feel Quinn trying to persuade him with. It doesn't work, because he still wants to drop to the ground and drink.

 _Artie,_ no _. She's still alive. Don't do this. Don't give into them. Remember what my father taught you._

He turns his eyes to hers, the onyx orbs pleading for help as his body and mind physically fight against his thirst.

_Be strong._

He flings himself backwards, resting against a light-post, breathing hard as he stares at them. Quinn hovers near the girl's body, visibly relaxing when the sincere, crystal blue eyes of Artie finally peer back at them through the darkness.

"Sorry." He says sheepishly and Quinn sniffs haughtily, turning her back to him. Rachel chuckles and nod infinitesimally at her best friend and he gives her a small, grateful smile.

The girl sprawled on the ground beside the car is beautiful, dark-skinned and voluptuous. There's a nasty cut on her forehead, a jagged gash on her shoulder, and her right arm is twisted behind her. She's unconscious but unmoving so it's a safe bet that she's not changing. Artie still stands a good distance away, holding his breath while Quinn kneels by her head. She leans over the girl on the ground, her chocolate skin glistening with red.

"She's not turning." She murmurs.

"No. I'm guessing whoever did this just wanted to feed, with little or no intention of turning her."

The cold, sweet smell around them is fading fast but there's no doubt that Santana was here.

"Artie, you alright?" Rachel calls back to him.

"Just peachy." He says woodenly.

"Why didn't you take her to the hospital?"

"I was going to, but-,"Quinn trails off, rolling her eyes as Artie growls.

"You two can bicker later, we need to get her to there fast or else she'll be dead inside three minutes."

She answers the thought as soon as Artie thinks it. "No. We don't know her; do you really want to subject her to this life, Artie?" She turns to him. "Sugar?"

He stiffens and glares at her, but she holds his gaze unflinching at the barrage of angry words he shouts at her mentally. He looks forlornly at the unconscious woman on the floor and gives a short shake of his head.

"It's faster if we carry her."

"And explain that how?" Quinn asks. "People are already starting to realize that something strange is going on around campus, either of us shows up at the hospital  _carrying_ this girl, that's bound to bring up a lot of questions."

"It's going to take too long to run back for our car if Rachel's timing is right." Artie answers.

"We're standing in a parking lot. We can hot wire one here."

They both turn to look at her. "You know, the longer we hang out together, the more you turn me into a felon." Quinn smiles and winks at her. The statement would have sounded normal coming from a teenager, not a 200 year old succubus.

"It's all the good sex she's been having. I can still smell her human all over her."

She glares at Artie and he staggers back, shaking his head. "Ow. I'm sorry."

"Or just take hers." She points to a dark blue Honda with an  _I Heart Whitney_  sticker on the back bumper. The stranger's scent is strong around it.

Quinn chuckles and hurries over to the car, prying the door open easily.

"She has the car keys in her purse Quinn." Artie snaps.

"It's more fun this way."

She squats down beside the girl and presses her fingers to her neck to check her pulse again, its beating too slow, a hollow thud in her ears. A strange current ripples over her fingers when she does. And she frowns, staring down at the girl. Her blood smells different, familiar somehow. But it's a good smell.

"Do we know who she is? How do you know there was a boyfriend?"

"Mercedes Jones. She's kissing a blonde guy in the picture on her phone." Artie tosses a cellphone and purse towards them, which she catches deftly.

She can taste the other smell wrapped around Mercedes now, musky and manly.

_Artie, go. Feed._

She looks behind her as he hurries off into the dark.

She picks up Mercedes gently, and the girl moans but doesn't wake. She hurries over to the car, sliding easily onto the backseat with the girl on her lap.

"Drive, Quinn." She adjusts Mercedes' head on her lap, pressing her fingers to the wounds on her head and neck. The skin there feels hot, almost burning her fingers and when she pulls her hand away the blood there glistens with colour.

"Quinn."

"I'm breaking the speed limit here, we're almost there."

"Quinn."

Mercedes' eyes snap open the minute Quinn stops in front of the emergency doors. Her eyes meet Rachel's and they widen slightly before slipping closed again. She doesn't know where she is, or what's going on and her mind is hazy with pain.

"We need help here!" Quinn shouts, jumping from the haphazardly parked car and towards a group of nurses on a smoke break. They shout back inside the hospital doors and two of them rush towards the open door of the car where she's sitting with Mercedes' head cradled in her lap.

"What happened?"

"We don't know, we found her like this on the ground!" She answers as a doctor pokes his head inside the car to look at the wounds on Mercedes' face.

"She's bleeding out badly from the carotid artery, lacerations to the forehead. And her arm - Jesus, what happened to her?"

"Are you hurt miss?"

"No, it's her blood." She answers as they usher the girl onto a gurney and inside the hospital doors. She follows behind clutching the girls' purse, shoving her phone inside.

She touches a nurse's arm. "This is hers."

The nurse nods and turns away once she tells her to forget the two girls who brought her in.

She and Quinn hurry way from the hospital, swallowed by the night as they make their way back towards their apartment. Quinn pauses at the road towards the guy's walk-up, looks back at her and then nods, walking quickly towards it. She wants to see Noah.

_They know now. Everything._

Quinn looks back at her with a small smile and nods again, flitting away.

Left alone with her thoughts, she takes her time walking back to their apartment. She's been having a wonderfully fucked up day so far. Noah and Kurt both know their secret, Quinn has the hots for Noah, Artie almost gave into the bloodlust and now she's sure there's something special about the girl that they just saved.

She can't understand how it never occurred to her before: she smells like Kurt. And if she's to be honest, faintly like Finn too. It doesn't make any sense. There's  _never_  been any indication that Finn wasn't human, or Kurt. They're brothers - step-brothers - so there's no way they share the same bloodline.

Mercedes' blood sparkles. She's never seen Kurt or Finn bleeding, so she doesn't know about them.

Noah, and Sugar, she's positive, however, are fully human.

Her mind wasn't closed to her, this was good. So, Mercedes was... special, and whatever it was about her, she shared it with Kurt and Finn. Was that why she was attacked? As for her missing boyfriend, chances are he was either dead, food or muscle. This is Santana's doing, she's sure of it, whatever sick game she's playing. Clearly there are no rules, and Santana has no problem in bringing in new friends to play.

* * *

When she gets back to the apartment, Finn is hurriedly getting dressed. She stands at the doorway and watches him. She can hear his heartbeat, fast and intense and she can feel the palpable anger coming off him.

He turns around and sees her, giving her a hard look before tugging his shirt on over his head.

"Did you know?"

She tilts her head in question.

"About Blaine."

Oh.

She walks quietly into the room, plucking the silver charms she had wrapped around the door frame. "Blaine's story wasn't mine to tell."

Finn sets his jaw and cuts his eyes at her, grabbing his shoes as he sits on the bed to tug them on.

"Seriously, Rach. I get that there are some things you can't or aren't supposed to - whatever the fuck it is about - not tell me. I do. But anything that puts my  _brother_  in any kind of harm, you should have told me."

"Kurt was never in any danger from Blaine."

"You can't know that!"

Soul mates aren't unheard of in her world. And by all respects, it looks like that's what Blaine and Kurt are. And in Kurt's case, if she's right, he's a little more special than everyone knows. Does Blaine?

Still, she doesn't say anything.

Finn finishes getting dressed and walks out of her room, stalking to the front door and yanks it open. He stops and turns to look back at her.

"Rachel, I really do care about you. I know it hasn't been that long, and in spite of the whole dhamphyr thing. I still  _don't_  care."

He sighs and looks back out in the darkness.

"I don't want to choose. But Kurt is my brother. He's all I have left in this world. I don't want to lose you, but I can't lose him."

She watches him leave, listening to the too fast beating of his heart as he walks to his truck. She doesn't need to go after him, but she should, try to explain. It seems that's all she's being doing lately. Trying to explain.

They were from two different worlds, no matter how similar they might seem. And as much as she wants Finn to be a part of her world, maybe he shouldn't be. Maybe it's her being around him that's changing him. Maybe every time she takes a bit of his essence she twists or alters him somehow.

She's heard the stories, about succubi and humans. Prolonged exposure between the two severely limits a human's lifespan. They usually die, happy, devoted and completely enthralled by the succubus who they've mated with. They live only to serve, either as a bedmate or as dinner. They are completely at the mercy of the succubus and would do almost everything they were asked. Even if it meant killing themselves. Bottom line was, they didn't last very long.

Maybe this time it was her nature working against her. She wasn't a full succubus so maybe her latent vampiric nature was affecting Finn somehow. Twisting the person he was, turning him to something darker.

Maybe it was being around  _her_  why Finn wasn't acting like Finn.

Her head hurts from all this thinking.

She goes to the bathroom, turning the water on scalding hot as she stands beneath it. Mercedes' blood washes easily from her, and even in the darkness, it looks like it's sparkling.

* * *

She's laying in bed, still and quiet when Artie appears at her door, warily eyeing the silver strands she still has over the door frame. It's almost dawn, and she hasn't moved since Finn left.

"Noah is coming."

Quinn walks in behind him.

She turns her head to look at Artie. He's just fed, his skin a healthy glow, blood spattering the black shirt he's wearing. His hands are dirty too, stained with a cold, sweet redness.

She sits up slowly, looking from her aunt to the vampire standing in front of her with the smell of death all over him. Quinn's eyes go wide as she looks back at her.

"Artie?" She gasps and walks over to him. He says nothing, just stands there blinking at them both. He stills when his eyes captures Rachel's.

"What is it?" Quinn asks.

"He killed a vampire."

"If you say its Santana I'll stop feeding from Puck. Well, not sleeping because that man can-,"

"Sebastian."

She cuts Quinn off because, just, no.

Artie rolls his neck and opens his mind to her, his eyes wide and bright, his mouth set in a grim line while she searches his mind for what happened.

She feels a faint stab of triumph before it morphs into regret and dismay.

He killed Sebastian. Santana's lackey was feeding on a co-ed on a park bench while Artie fed in the woods.

Squirrels and rabbits usually made up his diet, and he had a recent fascination with white-tail deer. But after today in the parking lot, the smell of fresh human blood led him directly to the lanky vampire who was attached to the neck of a leggy blonde co-ed and he had dragged Sebastian from her. They had fought in the woods behind the student housing off W. Blake Avenue and the vampire's dismembered body was still there smouldering, his head ripped off.

"Is the girl alive?" She whispers.

Artie dropped his eyes to the floor, embarrassed. He had to bury her too.

Quinn doesn't say anything.

She closes her eyes at the crippling guilt he feels at the stranger's death then squeezes his arm reassuringly. She wipes the blood from his cheek but Artie jerks his head from her hand and darts across to the other side of the living room just as Noah knocks on the door.

"He wants to talk to you. About Finn. And the girl from the hospital." Quinn says. She doesn't know anything else, but she's worried about Noah. Quinn's never kept one lover around for too long. Since she's met Finn she hasn't had to go out to feed elsewhere. Has it been the same with Quinn?

Artie looks at her, inclines his head and disappears inside his room while Quinn retreats to her own. Rachel pushes her fingers against her temple before walking over to the front door and pulling it open.

Noah was pacing up and down the space outside their door, his mind screaming about Santana and Finn and blood. He was making no sense.

"Noah?"

He whirls around to face her, his face pulled tight.

He crosses his arms over his chest, like he's pulling himself together and the confident, suave man she had known completely disappears.

"Noah, what is it?"

"Finn. Santana. Blood." His mind echoes the words and his eyes widen as he stares at her. She jerks her thumb behind her. "Want to come inside and talk about it?"

He hurries inside, resuming his pacing in the living room.

His thoughts are too jumbled to make any sense to her and she's almost getting a headache from his confusion and Artie's internal guilty ramblings.

"It's about Santana." He stops his pacing and looks in her in the eye.

She nods slowly.

"I introduced her to Finn, I met her one night at a party, she was hot, but she was staring at him, so I introduced them." He's nervous as he speaks, his heart beating too fast.

"OK." She says carefully.

He runs his hands over his Mohawk and starts pacing again.

"A couple of weeks later, we went to a party, Santana and some friends were there partying up. That Black girl, the one in the hospital, Quinn told me about tonight, she said something to Santana that kinda pissed her off and she left, dragging Finn with her."

She flits beside him and rests her hand on his shoulder. He jumps a foot in the air when she does.

"Noah, calm down. Breathe."

She touches a finger to his cheek and he lets out a sigh, relaxing immediately as a dazed look falls across his face.


	9. eight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The heart of the matter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: If you've figured out what the brothers are as well as Mercedes, good. It surprised me too, and I think a reviewer guessed it a couple chapters back. All I can say now, the story should (hopefully) get better. Warnings for darkness and some anger ahead, a lil bit of angst and stuff.

"I think Santana was feeding on him."

Noah's voice is hoarse as he turns frightened eyes toward her; he looks like  _he_  can't believe the words coming out of his own mouth.

Both Artie and Quinn appear in the room the second before she wraps her fingers around Noah's throat. Artie holds her back as Quinn stands in front of Noah, her eyes glowing bright silver as she looks stonily at Rachel.

"Let me go Artie!" She growls and tries to get free.

Quinn pushes Noah further behind her. "Calm down Rachel."

She fights against Artie's arms holding her back, feeling the muscles rippling and bunching as he restrains her. He's stronger than her, she knows, but right now she's mad as hell. She projects anguished mental shrieks into his head and he chokes out a groan, his head falling forward onto her hair, but still he keeps a firm hold on her.

She directs her mental attack towards Quinn and Noah and the human falls gasping to his knees, clutching his ears and groaning, blood seeping from his nose and ears. Quinn buckles over, her hand at her head as she grunts at the mental onslaught. She tries to fight back with fatigue and weariness but for the first time ever, Rachel feels Quinn fear of her.

"Rachel! Listen to me. Noah didn't know what Santana was. It's not his fault!  _Just listen to him_."

She stops screaming but doesn't relent on trying to free herself from Artie's hold.

"I swear if you don't stop fighting I will knock you the fuck out!" He snarls into her ear.

Noah looks up at her in alarm, his hands still at his head and she stops struggling, hating the way she looks in his mind. Quinn drops to the floor in front of Noah and worries at his face, glancing back up quickly at Artie. He rolls his eyes and she shrugs, pulling up Noah's t-shirt to wipe the blood from his face and nose.

"You can let me go Artie."

He hesitates and then releases her arms. She rubs her shoulder and looks back to glare at him, then she walks quickly to the bathroom, wetting a washrag that she carries back to the room and hands it to Quinn.

"Noah." She says apologetically.

He's seated on the couch his with eyes closed and he opens them and looks up at her, all trace of fear faded from his face. Quinn glances at her quickly with pursed lips as she cleans his face.

"His leg, the one with the scar. He hurt it the night of the accident. Santana's car hit the median in the road, and Finn was thrown through the windshield." Noah murmurs quietly.

She sits in the chair opposite him with Artie hovering between them.

"I was wasted from the party. So when I drove my bike up and saw her leaning over him, I thought she was trying to help him. She ran away when I walked over and like, disappeared afterwards. The police said Finn was driving, but he doesn't even drink, so they don't know how he crashed. It wasn't raining. The brakes on the car were fine." He presses his head against his forehead like he's tying to dig the memory out.

"I was too wasted, and I wasn't sure what I had seen. But I'm almost sure there was blood on her face and she ran away fast, like really fast." He looks at Quinn and then back at her.

"She stopped coming around then. I mean, she called like a week later but Finn was still out of it, he'd lost a lot of blood and his leg - his football career was over because of the accident.  _He_  didn't even remember what happened. I kept thinking if I hadn't introduced him to her, you know? It was  _my_  fault." He stares at her broken and tired, and he keeps repeating it over and over in his mind.

She wants to be mad at him, but it really wasn't his fault.

Santana must've done something that night. But why cause an accident that would kill Finn? And why feed on him in the middle of the road? If she has this obsession with his blood, why try and  _kill_  the source?

"Wait, Mercedes. You said you she said something to Santana. Do you know her? Do you know what it is she said to Santana?"

She watches him as he tries to remember, his mind slowly pulling back pieces of that night together." She's from LA. She and Kurt are buddies, they've taken some classes together."

He pinches his eyes closed as if remembering actually hurts then opens them, looking at her apologetically. "I was drunk, Rachel. I cant-,"

"Try." She snaps.

She tries to ignore the others and the pain prickling at the back of her head as she invades Noah's mind, pushing him deeper and deeper towards the old memory.

" _Whatever you're planning won't work, blood sucker. He has a mate, and you are not her. You_ will _die before he does."_ She sees the blurry image of Mercedes and Santana in Noah's mind as he faintly echoes the words. She pulls herself from his memory and he falls back onto the couch. Quinn presses her palm to his cheek and he holds it there, his eyes fluttering closed.

"What is it?" Artie asks.

She tilts her head to the side as she tries tries to understand what she's just heard and read from Noah; she's  _this_  close to an answer but it keeps slipping away from her.

"Rachel?"

"We need to call Tina." She murmurs, her voice hollow.

Artie pulls out his phone and dials. Quinn looks over at them.

"Why?"

"Mercedes knew what Santana was. And she said Santana would die before Finn."

"Seriously, what's the deal with this guy? Is he human or not?" Quinn snarls.

"Wait - what, Finn? What do you mean human or not?" Noah's eyes snap open and he pushes against Quinn to stare at Rachel. He seems to recognize Artie standing over him and his eyebrows pull together. "Wasn't he in a wheelchair?"

Quinn pats his knee reassuringly as he stares up at Artie.

Artie wraps up his conversation on the phone and turns to them. "They're on their way here."

He turns thoughtful eyes to Noah. "Has Finn ever done anything strange or odd growing up?"

Noah frowns at him, still skeptical that Artie is no longer in a wheelchair. "Finn? No. If anyone's strange it's Kurt. Like some smart-ass genie since he was a kid."

She's not sure if that's helpful or another piece of the puzzle that's of no use whatsoever.

* * *

It's late in the afternoon when Noah falls asleep. His brain was overworked and tired and Quinn kept glaring at her every time she went near him. Finally she took him up and carried him to her bedroom. Honestly, its like Rachel was the bad guy. Noah's mind was quiet as he slept though, which was good - one less person for her to try and block out.

"I know this may be a stupid question but I kind of feel useless, but do you need anything Rachel?"

She turns around to Sugar, smiling at the girl. Artie had ran off to get her right after Noah had fallen asleep, worried at the turn of events as the day unfolded. "No one knows what's going on. I'd rather her here where I can see her if anything should happen."

She understood; if she was in his position, she would have done the same thing.

"No, Sugar. I'm good, thanks. Why don't you go see if Quinn needs anything?"

Sugar nods and walks away, humming happily to herself. As she passes by Artie at the desk, she squeezes his shoulder affectionately and he looks up at her, winking as his gaze follows her towards Quinn's room.

She'd already known that Artie loved Sugar; she could've told him when he first realized it, but he was yet to say anything though.

Their relationship reminded her of Blaine and Kurt. Two sets of soul-mates. It made her slightly jealous; would she ever find hers? She entertained the idea that maybe it could be Finn, but after this morning, she wasn't so sure.

She tries calling Finn, but her call goes straight to voicemail. She assumes he's still upset with her which doesn't surprise her in the least. The whole I'm-dating-a-supernatural-thing might finally be getting to him. That and his protective streak towards his brother. She'd give him space, she'd just prefer it if she knew he was safe.

Santana hasn't done anything since Mercedes' attack. What she was waiting for, Rachel did not know. If Santana and her friends were going to make a move, she'd prefer they just get it done and over with.

"We should go see Mercedes."

She turns around to look at Artie. "You think that's a good idea?"

He shrugs and gets up from the desk, walking away from the window, his skin glowing lightly where the sun touches him. He glares at it and settles onto the couch.

"It can't hurt. And since she already knows what Santana is, maybe she can help us. Besides, I'm sure she wants to know what happened to her. As well as whatever happened to her boyfriend."

She nods slowly, her eyes on his.

"And maybe we can find out how it is she spoke calmly to and threatened a vampire and still lived to see another day. Or looked into a dhamphyr's eyes and still not freak out."

"How do you know she didn't?"

"There's been nothing on the news. At least, nothing recent. I found Finn's car accident." He nods back towards the computer. He doesn't think about the article though, she doesn't think she wants the details, she's grateful for that.

"She's still in the hospital, healing quite nicely, should be out in two days." He crosses his arm over his chest as he turns to face her.

"Two days? She almost had her head ripped off and her arm was twisted behind her. I really don't see how they could release her in two days."

"Which begs the question: is she a supernatural too?"

"What kind?"

They turn around to face Quinn as she flits into the room. Her nerves were frazzled, making her uncomfortable. Quinn didnt have much control over her abilities the longer she went without feeding or if she's upset or afraid. It's weird, even for Rachel.

She meets Rachel's eyes briefly before repeating her question.

"I'm younger than you both, what makes you think I have any idea what she is?" She huffs and drops onto a chair.

"And why wait until now to attack her? If they'd met before at that house party, why not kill her there? Why not kill her now?" Artie asks thoughtfully.

"Unless it wasn't Santana who attacked Mercedes."

"I don't think Brittany or Sebastian have much control over their bloodlust when feeding. You're saying there's another vampire at play besides those three?"

Rachel rubs her face again. "If they turn Mercedes' boyfriend, then its still four, counting our mystery player, since Artie already took out Sebastian."

"Thanks again for that." Quinn grins.

Artie smirks. "You're welcome."

"And since there hasn't been any recent news, we can only wonder what they're waiting on."

"Maybe for the boyfriend to turn?" Quinn offers.

"They couldn't have known I was going to kill Sebastian. And I doubt they're just building their ranks for fun. Since it's always been the three. If there is a fourth player, maybe he's the one calling the shots. Hence the wait." He says solemnly.

"What's their plan though? Finn?" Rachel asks. She looks towards the hallway as Noah and Sugar walk slowly into the room. Sugar sits on the arm of the couch beside Artie and he gives her another smile.

"We still talking about Finn?" Noah yawns and drops down beside Quinn.

"How're you feeling?" She murmurs.

"Don't piss off a dhamphyr." He chuckles lightly and shakes his head, covering another yawn.

Rachel looks towards the front door and sighs in relief. "Artie, get the door for Tina and Mike, please?"

He shakes his head in fake annoyance but gets up to open the door. The two vampires come breezing into the apartment, settling on the couch with broad grins on their faces.

"Please, Mike, Tina. Come on in." Quinn giggles and hurries over to sit on Mike's lap. "Hi stranger."

Noah raises an eyebrow but says nothing.

Tina scowls and looks over at Rachel. She eyes Noah sitting on the chair opposite them and uses her finger to send Quinn sprawling onto the floor.

"Always a pleasure, Quinn."

Rachel chuckles and shrugs her shoulders when Quinn glares at her. Noah hurries over to help her from the floor and onto the couch, giving her a curious look.

"Well, we're here."

"Artie said there was a party happening." Mike rubs his palms together and winks at her. "Sup, Rach?"

She grins at her friends and shakes her head. Mike and Tina were carefree nomads who literally travelled the world for fun. They were history buffs and walking encyclopaedias so if anyone knew anything, it'd be them. Also, it couldn't hurt to have friends around if - when - things started unravelling.

They'd just flown in from France but there was no time for pleasantries, and no time to brief Quinn and Artie about her suspicions.

"Mercedes' blood sparkles."

"What?" Both Tina and Mike look at her with shock.

"What are you talking about Rachel?" Artie asks, leaning toward her.

"Mercedes. When we were taking her to the hospital, I was checking her wounds and her skin burned my fingers, and her blood frickin sparkled."

"So she  _is_  a supernatural." He breathes.

Tina and Mike are staring at her as she speaks, one word echoing in their minds.

"What's a fae?" She tilts her head towards them.

"A what?" Quinn asks.

"I'm confused." Noah mutters.

"Ditto." Sugar sighs, resting her head on Artie's shoulder. He laughs lightly and pulls her into his side.

"Sidhe, to be exact, they're the only kind of supernatural with sparkling blood, colourful like the rainbow. But they're extinct. They have been for the past 500 years or so, at least before my time." Mike says thoughtfully. "I've never met one."

"Neither have I." Tina turns to her. "You said her blood sparkled. Were you able to read her?"

Rachel nods. "And she smells like Kurt." She hesitates.

"And Finn."

"Finn?" Tina frowns. "I thought you said he was human?"

"I thought so too. But after meeting Mercedes, I can't be sure. She smells like Kurt, and Finn. But I've never seen either of them bleed, and that's all I have to go on to determine who or what she is. I've never come across someone like Mercedes before."

Mike regards her thoughtfully.

"And no, Mike. I still can't read Finn. But I can read Kurt."

"And you're sure they're not blood related?"

"No. They're stepbrothers." Noah snorts. "Kurt's a fairy. Literally."

They all glare at him and he stares around the room. "Whoa, it was a joke."

Quinn snickers behind her hand and Rachel feels like smacking her.

"Have you seen Kurt's blood sparkle, Noah?" Artie asks.

He looks up at him. "Seriously dude, weren't you in a wheelchair?"

Artie waves his hand in dismissal. "What do you mean? Have you ever seen him bleed?"

He shrugs. "A couple of times. He's always been careful, you know? Besides dance he didn't really do much physical activities to warrant getting hurt. The few times I've ever seen him bleed his blood always looked normal. Dark red."

"And Finn?" Tina asks.

"He's gotten hurt a lot, he played football in high school and college, and we were always messing around as kids. But he hates the sight of blood, makes him queasy. The second he starts bleeding he freaks out, wipes it off and washes it away. His blood looks normal to me. Why are you asking?"

"It's possible the difference isn't obvious to human eyes." Mike suggests.

She shrugs.

She glances at her phone or any incoming calls or texts, disappointment settling in her belly that Finn still hasn't tried to reach her since he left. She calls him again. Straight to voicemail.

"What's a fae?" Noah prompts again.

"And how does one - make it three if Rachel's right about Kurt and Finn - just happen to pop up in Columbus, Ohio if they're supposed to be extinct?" Quinn adds.

"And what kind of abilities do they have?" Artie joins in. "Aside from Rachel, I don't know of any other supernatural with gifts like hers."

"And we've checked too. She's the only dhamphyr currently in existence." Mike grins at her.

"Gee, no pressure guys. Please don't remind me."

"I don't think Finn is a full Sidhe fae though if Rachel, or you two, couldn't pick up on it before. Sidhe are peaceful creatures, stunningly beautiful but can be terrifying when provoked. They are basically guardians of someplace, something or someone." Tina tells them.

"I thought it was just Finn being a hard-ass. He and Kurt are kinda very protective over each other." Noah mutters.

"Still doesn't explain why I can't read his mind or emotions. The only time I can learn anything about him that he doesn't tell me is when I take in his essence. And that's only during sex. I can't influence him otherwise."

Noah stares at her with wide eyes and she glares back at him. "Perv."

Tina and Mike look at each other, like they're having a silent conversation with their eyes. These two have been together long enough that they seem to be extensions of each other, moving in fluid synchronicity like one person. Now they're murmuring in their minds in an old, strange language.  _Celtic?_

She doesn't understand a word they're saying in their minds.

Quinn sniggers at the look of frustration on her face.

"Welcome to the normal world where you can't know everything everyone is thinking."

She rolls her eyes at Quinn, picking up a book to throw at her and pauses.

"Well, since we don't know exactly what Kurt, Mercedes or Finn really are, how about we just ask one of them?" She walks to the door, pulling it open just before Kurt can knock.

"I assume you heard me coming?"

She offers him a small smile and steps aside to let him in. "Where's Finn?"

Kurt gives her an apologetic smile. "He was sleeping when I left. He wasn't too happy with you. And neither am I for that matter."

He glances at Artie, his eyes widening as he looks at the two Asian vampires sitting with bright smiles on the couch. He takes a tentative step back, relaxing just a little when he sees Noah.

"Clearly you and my brother have a penchant for danger, Noah."

Noah shrugs and bobs his head. "Where's Blaine?"

"Blaine?" Tina asks.

"My boyfriend." Kurt's glasz eyes narrow in exasperation. "Ex-boyfriend." He turns to Rachel and his eyes flash angrily.

"You could have said something. Like telling me I was  _dating_  a vampire!"

"Kurt?" Mike asks pointing at him but looking at Rachel. She nods.

"Yes, who are you?"

Mike gives him a friendly smile. "Just a friend."

"A  _vampire_  friend?" He retorts, raising an eyebrow at the couple.

She flits to the kitchen and gets a small knife, reappearing in front of him. Kurt gasps and backs himself against the wall. "Jesus, would you stop doing that?"

She touches her finger to his cheek, dragging it slowly over his skin and his pupils dilate, a small smile stretching across his face. She raises the knife to Kurt's upturned hand and Artie stops breathing.

She turns her head to them.

"If either of you three even think about touching him when I do this, I will personally dismember you in the most horrible way you can imagine." She says flatly. They nod obediently and retreat to the wall furthest away. Noah scrambles to his feet and Quinn wraps her fingers around his wrist.

"Whoa.. Rachel, what are you doing?"

"Finding out."

She makes a small incision on Kurt's palm, pressing her fingers to the wound. Her fingers burn where she touches him, and the crimson liquid, thick and aromatic, pools in his hand swirling with faint colours.

* * *

"I'm going to assume either one of you is crazy, or all of you are crazy. And I'm slightly offended." Kurt sniffs, his eyes glinting dangerously as he surveys the room. Sugar tends to the small cut on his hand, giggling as she watches the curious looks on their faces.

"I know how this may sound, Kurt-,"

"Aside from being downright rude? I am  _not_  a fairy." Kurt snaps.

Noah laughs lightly and Quinn smacks him lightly on the back of the head.

"Ow! What? It's hilarious!"

Kurt cuts his eyes at him, hissing when Sugar stretches a bandaid over his palm.

"Kurt, how did you know that there was something off about me?"

"Apart from your too fast heartbeat and the fact that you should be dead with how hot your hands feel? Gee, I have no idea."

Rachel chuckles at him, looking over at Mike and Tina who are staring at him in awe.

"Aside from that. You suspected Santana too, huh?"

"Not really. I just figured she was over-excited all the time, hyper. Like Blaine. And you." He points to Artie. "And it was always strange that she never came over during the days, figured she was a night owl. And then I stared dating Blaine. He was always cool to the touch, and he reminded me of Santana in some strange way, especially the way his heartbeat used to race. He's also not big on eating and would always excuse himself soon after he did. And he drinks wine. A lot."

He looks over at Artie again. "The physical similarities between you two are uncanny. And then Blaine kinda freaked out when he met Rachel."

He walks over and cautiously sits beside Noah, warily eyeing his proximity to Quinn. "He told me earlier today. And I came straight here."

"Where's Blaine now?"

"I assume he went home. I asked him to leave me alone." He turns bright eyes onto Rachel. "I wanted to talk to you first. Because I thought you were sane. Besides being a creature of the night, you do seem to care for my brother."

"More like creature of the bedroom." Noah mutters.

She ignores him, Quinn chuckles lightly.

"And you're in love with Blaine."

"Stay out of my head Rachel."

She shrugs lightly and opens her palms to him. "He loves you back. I don't need to be a mind-reader to know that. And so do you."

He fidgets and looks around the room. "How am I supposed to believe that? You just told me you think I'm a fae."

"Sidhe." Tina clarifies.

Kurt rolls his eyes. "Whatever."

Mike laughs out loud. "I like him!"

Kurt snorts and leans his head on his fist.

"Why are you so sure I'm a fae? Sidhe." He looks askance at Mike.

"Part fae. Your blood sparkles. You were able to recognize another supernatural and you're very protective of those you love." She replies.

"What about your parents?" Tina asks.

 _Their parents are dead._  She sends this silently to Tina who nods infinitesimally in understanding.

"What about them?"

"What did they do?"

"My father was a policeman and my mother was a teacher."

She meets Tina's eyes. "And Finn's?"

"His father was a soldier and his mother was a nurse. What's this about? Why are you asking about our parents?"

"Protectors. They were all protectors in some capacity." Artie murmurs.

Kurt looks confused. "Yeah. And?"

"How do you know Mercedes?"

"Mercedes Jones? We've taken a few classes together." He answers.

"Classes?"

"She's a social work major."

"And you?"

"Psychology with an emphasis in musical therapy."

Rachel nods slowly as understanding creeps over Kurt's features. He and Mercedes had hit it off swimmingly the first time they'd met. They seemed to just click, like old friends.

"Jesus." He mutters. He glances at her smiling face and scowls. "I can't even believe I'm considering this."

Her phone beeps and she holds her breath as she opens the incoming text.

_I'm fine. I'll call you soon. - Finn_

She relaxes slightly, the stress evaporating her shoulders. As long as he was alright, and hopefully not too mad at her, she'd wait.

"You should call Finn, and talk to him." Quinn says knowingly.

Kurt chuckles lightly. "My stepbrother is a stubborn fool. Give him time, he'll come around."

"We should call Blaine. Get him over here." She smiles innocently at Kurt. He gives her an affronted look and huffs, crossing his arms over his chest as he sits back on the couch. She shakes her head at him, then tilts it to the door as she listens.

"Hmm. Would you look at that? No need."

Everyone turn their eyes to her.

She walks over to open the front door. "Tina, Mike, meet Blaine."

Kurt's curly-haired vampire boyfriend simply appears on the doorstep with a charming smile, his face glowing in the fading sunlight.

"I just had an interesting visitor. With a very intriguing proposition."

His eyes flash dangerously as he looks beyond her and meets Kurt's gaze.

She ushers him inside and turns to their group assembled. She was right, Santana was planning something. And apparently she had made a grievous mistake in trying to lure Blaine over to her side.

* * *

Kurt pales as he stares at Blaine. He was a mess. There's blood on his shirt, his bowtie is askew and his right shoulder looked odd on his frame.

"Dude, I'd hate to see what the other guy looks like." Noah grunts. Blaine's eyes twinkling merrily as he walks further into the room, cradling his hand.

"Don't really care, but he nearly lost his head."

She's almost sure he's speaking in the literal sense.

"Rachel, can you help me?" He asks politely, turning back to her. "I'm afraid my shoulder is already starting to heal from the attack and we'll need to dislocate it to reset it."

"Oh my God." Kurt drops his face in his hands, and Noah pats his shoulder awkwardly.

She stands beside Blaine, running her fingers lightly over his arm. He shudders and turn curious eyes towards her.

"That feels strangely good." He murmurs.

"It'll help." She shrugs.

"Help how?"

She puts one hand on his shoulder, pulling and twisting as Blaine's shoulder resets painfully.

" _Fuck_." He holds onto his shoulder as his feet give out and he drops to the floor. Kurt whimpers and presses his fingers to his mouth, his back rigid as he stares at his boyfriend - ex-boyfriend - on the floor. He wants to go to him, but Kurt's too damn stubborn. She snorts lightly.

"Do you know who attacked you?"

She searches his mind and Blaine frowns, "You really should ask before you do that."

She rolls her eyes and helps him to his feet. Already his arm was settling in place from his injury. He sits across from Kurt, but his boyfriend avoids his eyes, somehow still feeling betrayed by Blaine's omission.

"Who was it?"

"Don't know. Blond, shaggy-haired, tall. Never seen him before."

"Don't know him either." Blaine replies, flexing his arm, working out the kinks.

"Maybe it's the boyfriend?"

She turns to Quinn. "It hasn't even been 24 hours."

"You don't need that long. As long as you feed the human vampire blood, then kill them, the process speeds up. Eight hours tops. Doctors prescribe eight hours of sleep." Mike says quietly.

Kurt, Noah and Sugar all freeze in their seats.

Mike and Tina chuckle lightly. "Don't worry. Your virtues are safe. No one here drinks human blood. At least, not from the source anyway."

Artie looks at Blaine. "Bloodbank?" He nods.

"Officially creepy." Kurt whispers.

"Not that I want to break up your little bonding session here. But someone needs to go get Mercedes. If she's a fae like Kurt, I'd prefer she was around us, that way if another vamp wants to have a go at her, she'll be protected." Quinn speaks up.

Kurt holds his hand up, disbelief clear on his face. "Mercedes is a fae too?"

Rachel nods, a smile pulling at her face.

"I can't even blame Finn anymore. When did my life get so fucked up?" He rakes his hand through his hair and gets up, spying a bottle of wine on the shelf. He drinks from the bottle directly, his mind trying to wrap itself around everything the past couple of hours. He stares at the sunlight fading from the room, curious about Mercedes and Blaine and what Santana's plan in all this. He agrees that Mercedes should be here though. And he wonders where Sam is.

"Why don't you go get her Kurt?"

He turns around to her.

"Mercedes. Bring her here. Sam's the boyfriend?"

He nods.

"I'll go with you."

Kurt stops and glares at Blaine.

"It's better if Mercedes sees someone she knows, we don't know what's going through her head." Artie offers. "Since she knows you, maybe it'll be easier if it comes from you. Blaine can provide protection. Just in case." He finishes grimly.

"You're taking her here?" Tina asks.

"Four vampires, a succubus and a dhamphyr. Sounds like a party." Kurt quips. Not surprisingly, he's worried about Mercedes. He tilts the bottle to his lips again.

"You better ease up of the booze too." Noah chimes in.

"Do you want one of us to go?" Rachel steps forward.

Kurt looks around the room and sighs, then he shakes his head.

"Just for protection Kurt. Better safe than sorry." Blaine murmurs, walking to the door.

"Protection usually means a sword or a gun." Kurt gripes.

They ignore him. He gives Blaine the evil eye as they leave together; he pauses before he goes through the door, looks at the other vampires and asks Noah to be careful.

She's pretty sure Noah has nothing to worry about from a vampire. Kurt should be more worried about his relationship with Quinn.

The both of them retreat to Quinn's room after Tina and Mike slip out to go feed. She leaves Artie and Sugar on the couch and locks herself in her bedroom, silently glad that Mike and Tina have gone out, four sets of couples this close in proximity would make the headache she feels coming on even more unbearable. Even if Kurt tried to ignore how he felt towards Blaine, it was pretty hard to deny.

It's dark out and she's only gotten just the one text from Finn. She really hopes he's not still too mad at her, since Kurt came over to talk, and while he doesn't exactly trust her yet, at least he understands why she never said anything about Blaine.

He's forgiven her, she hopes Finn can do the same.

She lays in bed while the sun creeps beyond the horizon, but she can't sleep. Her mind won't shut off and the uneasy feeling refuses to go away. She just wants to talk to Finn at least once to assuage her worries. And figure out what the fuck Santana is up to.


	10. nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Confrontations and revelations, and Finn takes a fall.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: Some people might hate me right now, but please, remember, it's all in the name of creative expression! Warnings of darkness and violence ahead. And some cussing.

"Rach…" Finn croaks, his voice sound broken and wet.

That was a voicemail. She nearly takes the bedroom door off its hinges as she races through to the living room.

Artie and Sugar are curled up on the couch but the second she appears Artie immediately has his girlfriend behind him against the wall, eyes wide with fear as they stare at her.

Quinn and Noah's laughter abruptly cuts off and Quinn appears in front of her in a flash, Noah hurrying in after her. Quinn's eyes are dark and stormy as she stares at Rachel unsure of what the threat was, only reacting to Rachel's mental screaming.

_ RACHEL! _ Artie screams and she looks over at him, seeing herself in his mind. She looks almost terrifying, hair blowing behind her with her eyes glowing bright blue.

She closes her eyes and shakes her head, trying to calm herself and puts the phone back to her ear, praying Finn picks up. The phone rings eight times before the line clicks open. There's laboured breathing and soft, cruel laughter on the other end and then Finn's quiet, broken voice breathes her name.

She almost breaks the phone.

"Finn, baby? Where are you?"

More laughter and then Finn groans.

It's Quinn's voice in her head she hears shouting at her to stop and calm down after she's already torn the front door from the wall, down the stairs and at the end of the block. But she can't stop because on the other end of the phone, choking sobs and wheezes tell her that Finn is dying. And slowly.

_ Rachel. _

Quinn and Artie are beside her as soon as she stops, Noah and Sugar on the back of Noah's bike approaching them as they stand in the middle of the street.

"What is it Rachel?"

Her eyes search ahead and around them, listening to the sounds of the night, cars a few streets over, a house party at the house on the end of the block, and the man watching a Desperate Housewives marathon in the house directly across from them.

"Call back Kurt." She snaps at Noah.

_ Tell Tina and Mike to come back _ now _._ She tells Artie.

She turns back to Quinn. "I just a voicemail from Finn. He sounded hurt. I called him back and it sounded like someone else was with him, and Finn doesn't sound too good, like he's hurt and broken -" Her voice cracks and she wipes away the tears gathering on her face and turns back to the distance.

Noah's talking to Kurt, and Finn's brother's voice is increasing in panic when he tells him they just got to their apartment after picking up Mercedes and it looks like a storm passed through. There was blood. And a lot of it. But no Finn.

Sugar pulls out her phone to dial the police and Artie touches her hand to stop her. She inches behind him as she stares at Rachel, fear wafting from her.

Rachel snarls and kicks the ground, dirt and pebbles flying away from her. "Tell Blaine to take Mercedes and Kurt back to our apartment." She snaps at Noah, hearing the jagged voice from Kurt's end when he relays the message to Blaine.

"Santana." She growls.

She turns back to the people behind her. "It has to be her! This is her endgame. She knows she can't easily get to you two." She points to Quinn and Artie.

"Blaine wouldn't let anything dangerous near Kurt, and he dislikes her as much as I do, especially after their visit to him earlier. Noah is here with Quinn and I don't think she knows about Sugar yet. If she kills Finn I'm... done for. I'm as good as dead. And if she finally gets to me, then getting to you two will be easier, and then everyone else."

"You don't know if Santana is working alone." Artie murmurs.

"Even if she isn't, I'm pretty sure whatever she's planning, Finn's at the heart of it."

No one answers her.

"And she almost killed him once. She _tried_ to turn him!"

Noah's hand tightens on the handle of the motorcycle still beneath him. The image of Finn lying unconscious, thrown from his truck with his leg twisted beneath him flashes through his mind and he looks over at her guiltily.

She hears Tina and Mike hurrying towards them and turns to look in their direction.

"I'm going to Finn's. I can trace his scent from there. If he's still alive. And when I find Santana and whoever she's with, I'm going to kill them. " She feels the terror rolling off Sugar and looks at Artie. _Take her back to the apartment; she's not ready for this life. And if she stays with us tonight, she might get hurt. Or worse._

Artie nods infinitesimally and tugs Sugar aside, murmuring to her, nodding to their friends as they appear in front of him.

Quinn's eyes follow him and then she looks from Rachel to Noah and back. Noah wasn't leaving. His mind was steeled with hatred towards Santana. He knows now she was responsible for Finn's crash, Finn's broken leg and the fact that his best friend almost died.

She shakes her head at Quinn and her aunt's eyes turn silver as she turns to stare at Noah, a hard look steeling her face.

He wobbles on the bike and it falls over, taking him over with it. "I know what you're doing Quinn." He says tiredly, groaning. He fights to get to his feet and falls over again as she batters his emotions with fatigue.

"Don't do this, baby, please. If you go without me and anything happens to Finn I'll never forgive myself. Don't make me hate myself any more than I already do. I brought Santana into his life." Noah pleads, fighting to stay conscious.

Quinn knows as well as they all do that if Noah goes with them he may not come out alive. And the longer they stand there arguing the less chance Finn will have of surviving.

Quinn pauses in her onslaught and the full weight of Quinn's feelings towards the human surprises Rachel, and she turns around to stare at them both.

If Noah dies she's pretty sure Quinn will try to follow him.

Her father flashes through her mind. If her mother had simply disappeared and he had lost the will to live, if Finn dies she knows she'll be destroyed. Just like Quinn. And without her or Quinn, Artie would surely either die himself or turn into the monsters they were about to face.

Santana would have to die. And anyone else who was with her.

Santana needed to die. Finn was hurt. He was dying. And it was Santana's fault.

Anger, blue and hot surges within her and and she _feels_ everyone step away from her; she can feel the force of the energy pulsating from her body, flowing over her skin. She looks almost ethereal in their minds, almost like how Quinn does in the midst of her dance. She feels strong, her mind awake and heightened, her senses even more attuned to her surroundings and blood pounding in her ears.

The sounds of the night get quiet, the voices of her friends in her mind fade away and everything is silent as her eyes slip closed.

A tether - invisible, thrumming powerfully in its intensity, almost _alive -_ unravels from her and stretches out into the night, out in the silent darkness, towards Finn. It touches him, in her mind, and wraps around his essence, the faint beat of his heart feeling out of sync with hers. There's something else too, another energy wrapped around her and him, something pulsating and warm; she can't get a read on it, but its here, with her and growing stronger by the minute.

As if he senses her there, Finn says her name, barely a whisper. Someone nudges him with a booted foot and Finn coughs, blood spewing from his mouth as his body shudders in pain.

She snarls and when she opens her eyes, the tether stretching from her to Finn sparks blue before it recoils, going invisible and wrapping snugly around his essence again.

"Badass." Noah whispers; her eyes flicker to him and he grins tiredly.

"Are you done showing off now Wonder Woman, or shall we get this party on the road? Don't we have asses to kick?" Mike chuckles.

She turns around to her friends and reaches her mind out to touch theirs again; her link to Finn hums in the back of her mind and she can sense the familiarity in it with the way Quinn feels about Noah, between Tina and Mike and Artie, fear tickling his mind as he worries about Sugar.

"Blaine. He's young but he can protect the humans." She murmurs to herself. She's almost afraid, leaving such a young vampire in charge of two Fae kin and a human. She knows where Finn now, she has to get to him and she really hopes she's not making the wrong choice.

"I'm pretty sure they know I'm coming. And they're ready to fight." She murmurs to the darkness, her eyes far away.

Quinn flits over to Noah and kisses him softly, pressing their foreheads together. "Please, please, be careful."

"I'm the Puckerone baby. I don't go down easy." Puck's voice is confident as he speaks, but mentally he prays he survives the night.

Rachel laughs despite herself and takes off towards the other side of campus, the others close behind her.

She's at the corner near Finn's apartment when the sweet smell invades her nostrils. She doesn't falter, she just swallows hard and flies up the stairs where Finn's scent is strong. The rich, coppery smell of blood almost overwhelms her senses. She picks up Kurt's and Noah's lingering scent as well, and Blaine's, the young vampire's smell mingled with Kurt's and Mercedes.

Inside their apartment is a mess, overturned chairs, scattered books, smashed plates and she hurries towards Finn's room, stopping suddenly at his broken body lying by the doorway.

His heart was still beating, but it was faint, the rhythm still familiar to her and it was fading fast; the tether from her to his was weakening.

She crouches down by his head, unable to move him, hating the unnatural twist of his arms and legs, sparkling crimson pooling beneath him. She hears Quinn and Artie coming into the room behind her, Artie's sharp intake of breath as he smells the blood. And something else.

"Finn." She calls out, brushing his hair away from his face, and as her finger touches the skin of his forehead, the extent of his injuries almost cripple her. She feels raw and bruised as she looks at him; she doesn't want to imagine how _he_ feels.

She grips her chest tight, her heart literally hurting with Finn's pain. It was bad. He looked like death.

His breathing stutters and his right arms jerks as his eyes fight to open, weak and unfocused, but he still tries to smile, spitting out blood as he tries to call her name again.

"Rach." He whispers and coughs; she turns his head to the side, hating herself when blood leaks from his mouth. There were bite marks all over his neck and shoulders.

The sweet, cloying smell is stronger around him and all over him and her eyes sweep the room, Finn's cellphone laying just beyond his reach.

Noah and Tina come running into the room and Quinn has to restrain Finn's best friend as he tries to come in closer. She hears Mike's loud internal voice as he shouts a warning to her and the smug, savagely cruel thoughts of the other supernaturals as they surrounding the apartment.

The callous twisted voice of a vampire comes from behind Quinn and Tina outside the door.

"Why you insist on playing with pathetic, weak humans is beyond me."

Her head twists around an her eyes narrow at the slim, caramel-skinned beauty leaning by the doorway. Santana walks into the room and wiggles her fingers at Artie, Tina and Quinn. The succubus snarls. Noah rushes over and crouches beside Finn, his face wet as he cradles his best friend's hand in his and when he looks up to stare at Santana, his eyes are hard and angry.

"You're a bitch Santana." He throws at her.

The vampire shrugs in response.

"They're just food, you know." She shakes her head and wrinkles her nose down at Finn.

"Santana. You must seriously have a death wish." Artie snaps, stalking forward.

She snickers and rolls her eyes at him. "Honestly. You really think you three can take me? And I'm not here alone."

Rachel's body shakes in anger and she has to fight against the urge when Mercedes' boyfriend and Brittany appear in the room. Noah jumps at their sudden appearance and tightens his hold onto Finn, moving closer to Rachel. Quinn is behind him before he's even aware of her moving.

Santana's cold red eyes watch his movement and she laughs evilly. "That's right, little human. Run away."

Quinn snarls and leans over Noah.

"Tsk, tsk. Must it always come to violence?"

The cold, sweet smell in the room gets stronger and a tall, curly-haired vampire struts into the room, his smile polite and easy as he surveys the room. Rachel goes rigid beside Finn and crackling energy pass over her skin, making Noah flinch away.

"Hello Quinn."

"I should have known you were involved in this Jesse. Can't take no for an answer, so you run to the closest bitch for comfort."

Santana glares at her while Jesse smirks. "Watch it, blondie. How Jesse could ever have been interested in the lil hobbit, I'll never know."

_ Noah. Go get the shower curtain rod. Or the rod in your closets, just find iron. _

Noah looks at her from the corner of his eyes and blinks. _Kurt has katanas, he has some kind of sword fetish and Finn bought him one last year._

She presses her lips to Finn's, willing some of her own essence into him, to buy him some time. He groans and his eyes flutter open to meet hers and Noah blows out a breath, clutching Finn's hand tighter in his.

"Touching." Jesse mutters.

Rachel stands up, wavering on her feet for a second then turns around to glare at the intruders. Quinn steps up beside her and Noah slips away.

"What do you want?" She asks between gritted teeth.

The other vampires look disinterested as they look around the destroyed room. Sam licks his lips as he stares at the blood pooling around Finn. He looks like he's in pain and ready to drop to his knees and feed. Outside Mike is having another glare match with another of Santana's friends, a tall thick Black man. Around them, the handful of remaning tenants are fast asleep. She almost wishes the men had gone back home to Lima for Spring Break like almost everyone else.

Santana giggles and runs her fingers lovingly through Brittany's hair. "Girls just wanna have fun. And, well. Finn was a lot of fun, if you know what I mean." She winks at Rachel.

"This has nothing to do with him you bitch."

Santana narrows her eyes. "Actually it does. You just waltzing in here and grabbing his interest like some wannabe superstar. Not cool. Finn was mine first."

"You almost killed him." Rachel snaps. She feels the energy crackling over her skin and Jesse raises his eyebrows, his smile widening as he watches her.

"Yes, I'm sure you know by now that our little Frankenteen is kind of special for a human. Well, he's not even really human is he. He's cheated death twice. Can you imagine him, fae kin turned vampire? He'll be practically invincible. And I'll be the one to turn him, so of course he'll be all mine, especially in the bedroom. He's a beast, isn't he?" Santana winks at her and she wants nothing more than to reach forward and rip the bitch's eyes out.

Noah reappears behind them with Kurt's katana in one hand, the shower rod in the other.

_ What does she mean Finn's cheated death twice? _ She shouts at him.

Noah stumbles back and shakes his head. _Ow_. _He wasn't breathing when he was born. And after his accident he was dead for a minute._

_ If Finn dies this third time, as a Sidhe and is reborn a vampire, he'll be stronger than any of them, loyal only to the vampire who sires him. _ Tina thinks to herself, staring over at Rachel. _And if he bites you, a dhamphyr, he can turn you into a vampire in full control of your gifts._

It feels like she's in a dream, as she looks around at the standoff in the room, at Finn's body bloody and broken on the floor. Noah stands over him, his mouth set in a grim line as he stares at supernaturals bigger, stronger, faster and deadlier than him. But he doesn't back down. She wants to grab him and Finn and take them somewhere far, far away, away from her world. Away from Jesse and Santana.

Jesse looks between her and Artie, smiling. "Hey Watson, I think they've figured it out!"

Artie's eyes widen and he swings his head around to her. She projects what Noah and Tina just said to him and Quinn. He snarls and his fingers twitch as he narrows his eyes at Santana.

"Honestly, you're a bit slow. Your mother knows that's why there aren't many dhamphyrs in existence. Can you imagine having more people like you around? Although, you're a bit special than most, huh, Rachel? That little gift you have, reading minds? The things one can do as vampire like you. You could be queen. And I, rightfully, king."

He rubs his hands and paces slowly, tapping his cheek as he looks up to stare at her.

"If it makes you feel any better, your mother died without telling me where you were. They hid you quite well." Jesse smiles charmingly and winks at Rachel.

Quinn growls and steps closer to Jesse. "I'm really going to enjoy ripping your head from your body and watching you burn."

Santana laughs as she watches them. _If I can't have him, then you can't either. If I turn him, getting rid of Jesse would be so much easier._

She's not sure if Santana knows she can read her, and she doesn't care. She flies at the Latina vampire, pushing her backwards into a bookshelf, plaster and wood crashing down on her. Quinn lunges at the blonde vampire when she moves towards Rachel, sending her into another corner of the room.

Jesse watches with impassive eyes as Artie and Quinn stand on either side of Rachel. Tina has her arms crossed as she glares at Sam. He steps back warily.

Rachel narrows her eyes at Jesse and his mind is silent and he blinks lazily at her.

"Jesse, why are you here?"

"I came for you my sweet."

"We've been through this."

Santana scrambles to her feet, snarling. "Oh, I'm going to enjoying kicking the living fuck out of you." Her mental snarls are as loud as her growls as she advances and Rachel knows she doesn't stand a snowball chance in hell on surviving a full on attack with her. She has to break the blocks in her mind first.

Brittany pops up beside Santana and looks over at Jesse. His eyes twinkle merrily as he surveys the standoff in the room.

"I want the dhamphyr alive."

Things happen far too quickly for her to react to, but the sickening crunch of Noah's body falling to the floor turns Quinn into a madwoman, her fingers extended like claws as she wraps them around Brittany's neck. Artie is trading blows with Jesse and Tina and Sam are grappling on the floor. She grabs the dropped katana and tosses it towards Santana where it embeds into her arm before Santana kicks her in the chest and flits to the door, wiping blood from her split cheek as she looks over her shoulder.

"Catch me if you can bitch."

She disappears out into the night and casting one last look at Finn, seeing the stilted rise and fall of his chest, she hurries after the Latina vampire, passing Mike and the hulking vampire Jesse brought with him moving like a blur in the night.

Around them, people are still blissfully asleep but she doesn't linger to find out why. She catches Santana's scent and races away towards the outcrop of trees like a bullet.

She's not in the trees far enough when Santana appears out of nowhere and hits her with a broken tree, flinging her body hard onto a trunk of a hardwood tree. Then she grabs her by the hair, tossing her violently onto the floor, her back ricocheting off a large rock before she crumples to the floor, the split in her lip bleeding into her mouth.

Her head hurts as Santana bombards her with vicious thoughts: Finn's broken body, covered in bite marks and blood. Artie's head torn off, Quinn eviscerated. She falls to the ground with the images on replay in Santana's mind, her knees weak with despair, despite knowing them to be untrue.

"Your one fatal flaw." Santana snarls and kicks her in the belly.

Rachel grunts as her hands give out and she flattens onto the ground and then screams as Santana comes in for another strike, her nails clawing at her back.

"You care too much."

Santana kicks her in the side again as she tries to stand.

She glares at the vampire flitting around her. She can't predict what she's going to do because all Santana is projecting are those nasty thoughts of her family and friends bloody, dying or dead. Kurt's small, lithe body ripped into, his throat shredded, Sugar's hair matted with blood and her face torn away, Mercedes' head rippled from her supple body, sparkling blood flowing free like a fountain.

If Rachel dies, she's pretty sure those visions will come true.

She closes her eyes and tries to expel the thoughts, trying instead to think of them whole, happy and smiling, alive and well, taking another kick to the face as the Latina vampire snarls, laughing at her lying on the floor.

"You're weak. Pathetic. Practically human. Why Jesse wants to turn you I will never understand."

Santana smacks her across the face and she tastes the blood in her mouth, the taste wrong and bitter. She lunges and Santana dances away from her and Rachel gets on her feet, unsteady but glaring.

Whatever Jesse had done to block her from projecting her thoughts directly into his mind, apparently he had taught the female in front of her. She wasn't able to tap into the gifts where no one (except Finn and Jesse apparently) could resist her.

Jesse.

The smooth-talking vampire who had left her sated and happy and tried to trick her into drinking blood. His blood. Because he knew when he killed her she'd awaken a full vampire, still with her succubus charms and abilities and wholly his charge.

Jesse who wanted to keep her for himself. Crazed and bloodthirsty. Like Santana. He'd be her master.

She was enraged enough that she could feel her hands around his throat.

But first she needs to get her hands around Santana's.

Rachel rolls away from the next kick Santana aims towards her head, her eyes gleaming as she sees Kurt's katana carelessly tossed to the side. She turns her eyes back towards Santana; her strength was waning and the vampire was strong.

"Once I kill you, Jesse will be rid of whatever spell you've cast on him." Santana smirks, circling her, like a tiger about to pounce on her prey.

"And then, maybe I'll get to enjoy what's left of Finn. Now I know why the Fae are extinct. He tastes delicious! A bit too tart since you fucked him, but eh, I'll get over it. I'll drain him and then toss his useless body aside to turn. Jesse didn't want us to turn Mercedes but Brit was hungry. Sweet ambrosia."

The vampire purrs. "I'd like to get my hands on Kurt too. Too bad Blaine is a pussy. Maybe I'll have a go at Noah or even sweet lil Sugar."

Santana winks and rushes towards her, arms outstretched. The vision Santana throws at her of her at Finn's throat, eyes lifeless and empty, reminds her of the day Quinn started the orgy in the club, when she'd almost lost Finn then. And she wasn't going to lose him now.

She lunges at Santana and pushes her so hard she falls down to the floor, heavy. Rachel flies towards the forgotten sword, twirling it in her hands as Santana gets up, her gaze murderous. Her thoughts falter once she sees the sword, her teeth showing as she grimaces.

"That won't help you songbird. Your blood will stain these woods tonight."

Rachel shakes her head, feeling the anger heating her blood at the thought of Finn dead and broken. She sees herself in Santana's mind, eyes glowing bright azure, hair whipping around her.

Her voice surprises her when she speaks, guttural and fierce and power surges up her fingertips as she grips the sword tighter.

The darkness she's long feared, that her father mentioned, that dhamphyrs threatened were stronger than those who they were born from. She doesn't know what triggers it, but she welcomes it, the cold burn starting from deep down inside. She can _taste_ it.

She smiles wickedly, seeing the fear shouting in Santana's mind.

"You know, if you're going to fucking kill me, just do it and quit talking!" She kicks out at the vampire, satisfied at the thump when her foot connects. Santana snarls and flies up from the floor, her nails scraping over Rachel's arms as she tries to get a good hold.

Too late the vampire realizes her intention and the split second she turns to run, Rachel grabs the ponytail and jerks her back, throwing her to the ground. Santana grunts and tries to roll out of her grasp but Rachel kicks her over, placing a foot onto her chest, holding Santana in place as she snarls and rakes her nails over her leg.

With renewed vigour, she wraps her hands around Santana's throat, lifting her to her feet, ignoring the clawing of her hands as they try to find purchase on Rachel's arm. The vampire's eyes are wide with fear and Rachel smiles sweetly.

"Shhh. Don't worry. This will be over quickly."

Santana goes limp in her hands, face slack as she stares transfixed and sighs.

"Feels good, huh?" Rachel says, stroking her thumb along the vampire's throat. Santana shivers and smiles lustfully.

"More." She moans.

"Gladly." Rachel presses her lips to the vampire's, and her entire body shudders as she pulls Santana's essence into her. The vampire moans and tries to push her body against Rachel's body before going stiff and then pliant, glowing a faint blue as Rachel feeds from her.

Rachel pulls away right as the last thread of life can flow into her and drops Santana's body onto the ground. Her eyes are wide, surprised and fully dilated as Rachel twirls the katana in front of her.

"Your blood will stain these woods tonight." She murmurs before striking.

She's standing over Santana's corpse, Kurt's katana dripping ichor when she hears the jumbled thoughts of Artie crashing in the woods as he rushes toward her, Tina and Quinn behind him.

He stops as sees her, his eyes flickering to the broken body at her feet and then to her face.

_ You know, this glowing blue-eyed, flowing hair goddess thing is a good look on you. _ She cracks a smile and looks behind him as Tina and Quinn appear. Tina, who's not sure what to make of this steps back warily as she stares.

"Relax, Tina. I'm not going to bite."

Her voice still sounds strange, and all three vampires look positively terrified of her. She wills herself to calm down, breathing slowly as her anger recedes and the energy swirling around her belly retracts. When she opens her eyes again, she looks like Rachel again with intense brown eyes staring back at them in their minds.

"Nice trick. Please don't do that again." Quinn says nervously.

She chuckles and glances at the body that was the vampire.

"You go, Buffy." Artie quips, tossing a lit match onto it.

"Jesse?" She asks.

"He got away. Sam ran off without an arm and Tina chased after him, I wasn't much help in keeping him down. Artie had his hands full with helping Mike and the brute outside." Quinn says quietly.

"The newborn is still out there." Tina says carefully.

"Brittany?"

Artie's thoughts told her she and the brute were both smouldering fires about a mile away. She nods. They're hiding something.

"Finn?"

"Kurt and Blaine took him and Puck to the hospital." Quinn speaks up. There was a lull to her thoughts and her words. Rachel turns her eyes onto her aunt.

"Quinn, what is it?"

Artie exchanges a look with the blonde and they both sigh. "He's lost too much blood, Rachel. He won't make it through the night."

She closes her eyes and grits her teeth, feeling the energy still swirling in her body, dying to be released. A stray thought from Quinn halts her in her steps as she makes to run to the hospital.

"Please, no." She whispers harshly. Her legs give out and she stumbles to the ground, a few feet away from the smouldering vampire.

_ Yes, he's been bitten. If he dies this night, he will become vampire. _

Energy from her hands seeps into the ground and pushes her to her feet. She ignores the terrified looks of the others and races through the trees towards the hospital, towards Finn, the tether between them weakening.

As she runs, Jesse's cruel laughter echoes in her memory and she pushes herself harder, past the other two smouldering fires and onto the pavement.

Santana was dead.

Finn couldn't die.

He wasn't supposed to. Not like this.


	11. ten

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The aftermath of Finn's attack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for darkness ahead and hopefully I haven't confused y'all with the variety of creative nonsense I've thrown in.

Dread wraps itself around her as she races towards the hospital. All that energy she gained from feeding from Santana fuels her flight as her mind throbs with the vampire's false visions as well as Jesse and Tina's words.

Jesse had known her mother. All this time her father and Quinn had thought Shelby had just run off, when it was Jesse who had killed her. Although she's never hated someone more, she was glad he got away. She would find him. And she would kill him. She was sure of it.

And Finn. Santana had bitten Finn, attempted to _turn_  him. The vampire was dead now, yes, but still.

Finn was lying in the hospital dying.

She pushes herself harder, trying to block out the heartbreaking images still flashing through her mind. She stumbles and falls but gets to her feet, looking behind her to see Artie coming up close. She sets off again, her movement ungainly as she runs. She just needs to get to Finn. Because he has to be alright. He can't just die like that. She's only had him in her life for a couple of weeks and despite the obvious difference, she really wants him in her life for longer than that.

She sees the lights of the emergency room of the hospital up ahead just as Mike sort of materializes from the shadows nearby and grabs onto her bare shoulders.

He's older than her, more agile and a lot stronger and soon he has her smaller body pinned to the ground, his knee at her back with her arms held painfully behind her as the others rush towards them.

"Let me go!" Her guttural voice snarls. She strains against Mike's hold and almost gets free until he quickly moves his hands from her arms to over her T-shirt, to avoid touching her skin.

"You my dear, are a whole lot stronger than you look. And very convincing." He grunts as she struggles against him. He starts chanting some Mandarin song in his mind and has to sit atop her back as she bucks and snarls wildly beneath him. He curses lightly and fights harder to keep her down.

"Please little halfling, calm down." He grits his teeth and holds her hands tighter at her back.

The others hurry towards them and she doesn't understand their hesitation when Artie and Quinn linger back, hovering a few feet away as Mike tries to restrain her from the shadows of the trees. She can hear them, their thoughts cautious as they try out ideas as to what was wrong with her.

 _"There's nothing wrong with me! Let me go so I can get to Finn!"_ She snarls again and flexes her shoulders, bucking Mike off her back before he drops quickly onto her again, his knee at her back, holding her head down and her arms stretched behind her.

Tina comes closer and kneels down beside her, shuddering lightly when she touches her cheek. Rachel's eyes flash as she tries to convince the tiny vampire to tell her mate let her go free.

"Tina." Mike warns.

"Don't touch her." Quinn warns from behind.

"Rachel. You need to calm down." Mike mutters. She bucks against him again and he redoubles his efforts, gritting his teeth. "Some help here please?"

Artie bends down beside Tina and pulls the other vampire's hand away from Rachel's skin. She stares at Tina, glowing eyes flicking quickly between her and Artie, trying her best to touch their minds.

 _Let me go. Now._ She sounds as frightening in their mind as she did back in the clearing and they both scamper backwards, hurrying away from her in apprehension as Quinn advances.

"What is it?" She asks.

"I don't know, but I'm not sure that's Rachel anymore." Tina whispers.

Her aunt kneels beside her, silver eyes bright in the moonlight and presses her palm to Rachel's cheek. Her body shivers lightly before she sighs and pulls her hand away. She looks back at the others and then back to the dhamphyr on the ground. Rachel's eyes are fully blue as she glares back, using every bit of her gift to still try and convince them to let her go.

Mike is physically the strongest of their group and he's only managed to restrain her only because he's moved his hands from her bare skin.

Rachel snarls again, still trying to get free. Quinn stares at her beseechingly, digging up the grass around Rachel's body in frustration.

"She's giving in to her darkness. The part of her that embraces her vampiric nature."

Artie crawls back beside Rachel, his eyes pleading. "Rachel, I know you're upset, but you need to calm down. Try and relax so we can figure out what to do. We can't just go storming into a hospital. Especially with you looking like this."

He touches her shirt, pulling the ripped straps away to look at her skin.

" _Christ_. Quinn, she's not healing."

She stares at them, watching them as they hover over her, taking stock of the injuries she never realized she'd gotten during her fight with Santana. They murmur quietly together at the numerous cuts on her arm and legs, bones sticking out on her side. She  _can't_  feel the pain though.

She's too mad.

She thrashes against Mike's hold again. He still keeps her pinned down.

She snarls into the dirt.

"Uh, how do we keep her from not going full nova?" Tina asks carefully.

"She needs to feed."

Artie looks at Quinn blankly.

"She needs to sate her appetite. Both sides of it."

It's Mercedes who says this, walking quickly from the hospital towards them, Blaine's eyes sweeping left to right as he follows Kurt closely who's hurrying behind Mercedes. Kurt balks at the sight in front of him, staring with wide eyes at the vampire sitting on top of Rachel.

"Oh my God,  _Rachel_? Mike! What are you doing!"

Kurt bends to help her and Blaine holds him back. "Kurt, wait."

"Why? What's going on? Mike, let her go!" He fumes.

The others ignore him, focusing on Mercedes as she stands over Rachel.

"What do you mean, both sides?"

Mercedes is still holding her arm carefully in a sling, but the gash on her forehead is almost already healed and her neck is still bandaged. She looks whole and healthy and nothing like someone who just tangoed with (and almost lost to) a vampire.

She drops beside Rachel who's glaring at her as she struggles against Mikes' hold and gingerly brushes her hair away. Rachel holds her eyes, pleading verbally as well as to Mercedes' mind.

"I need to go. Please."

"I know baby girl. But you need to stop and think for two seconds. Finn's fine, or as fine as he can be, for now. He's been bitten by Santana. You are hurt. You need to heal. And you can't do that until you calm down." Mercedes says placatingly.

"I will once I see him." Rachel insists.

Mercedes sighs and closes her eyes. In her mind, she begs Rachel to calm down. To stop and breathe. She's getting dangerously close to the edge and if she goes over that, getting her back to the Rachel of before will too late.

_Finn is lying in that hospital. Right there. Just let me go to him._

Rachel presses her forehead onto the ground, frustrated at her immobility. She  _needs_  to get to Finn.

* * *

She can hear them talking around her.

She stops fighting against Mike, still he holds her arms to the ground by her side, keeping a careful watch on her. She doesn't speak. She keeps her eyes closed, trying to reach inside her for the tether that links her to Finn. It's barely there, faint, and she has to push herself harder mentally to find him.

His heart is working overtime, trying to push his blood, poisoned with Santana's venom through his veins. But his body is too broken and the doctors working on him have done their best.

She sets her jaw, counting his heartbeat, trying to match it to hers. Hers is beating three times faster than Finn's. And the longer they stand here and discuss what to do, the slower they get.

She turns to the group of people standing near her, tuning back into their conversation, ignoring Mike's Mandarin song as he tries to think of everything besides keeping her trapped.

"She's tapped out her reserves and fighting Santana took a lot out of her. Even though she fed on the vampire before killing her, she's not healing. There's something blocking her, and the worse Finn gets, the more she gives in."

She feels all eyes on her and she rolls her shoulders again, cursing Mike when he presses back.

"Wait, how do you know this?"

Mercedes looks up at Quinn. "Her mother told my grandmother."

"Shelby?" Quinn asks hoarsely. Mercedes nods and looks down, meeting Rachel's eyes.

"You look so much like her. She didn't leave you because she wanted to. She left to find answers. You're the first of your kind to be born in a very long time. You could talk to your mother from the womb, tell her how you were feeling, you understood her thoughts and even though she was happy, she was scared; no one really knew anything about Halflings, if you were dangerous or what. My grandmother understood. She tried to help. She just was too late."

Rachel doesn't respond; she looks up at Quinn who has tears in her eyes.

Mercedes sighs and pushes herself from the ground and Kurt hurries over to help her.

"Rachel needs to feed. And not just on someone's life essence."

Artie scoffs and shakes his head.

"She won't. She's never had blood before."

"I know that. But it's the only way for her to come back from this. And it's the only way to save Finn."

"You guys do know I'm right here, right?" She mutters, glaring up at them.

Artie stares down at her.  _Are you going to behave?_

She scowls at him.

"We need to move." Blaine says, looking around nervously.

There isn't anyone around them for miles, but she can smell dawn approaching and the vampires might want to be inside when the sun does come up. And just in case someone did pass by, explaining a tall guy sitting on top a little girl with glowing blue eyes might be rather interesting.

"And go where? Rachel ripped her front door off its hinges, you live off campus and Mercedes lives in a dorm. My apartment is a fucking mess thanks to that bitch and her hooligan friends." Kurt mutters, his eyes on Rachel.

Artie strides across the street and into a building, the lower floor of a library. He comes back out and hurries back to them.

"There's a lecture room on the ground floor. It's empty and I've disarmed their alarm system. We can wait in there."

She turns her head to him and tries to shrug.

"Sure. Soon as Mike lets me up."

"Long as you can promise to quit fighting and help us figure out a plan." He stares at her, challenging her to disagree, ignoring the silent snarls she projects into his mind.

"Fine." She finally grunts.

Artie looks at Mike and he releases her, stepping away from her and jumping to Tina's side. She ignores their clasped hands and the feeling of completeness as they stand together and gets gingerly to her feet. They watch her warily.

Her side hurts, her legs throbs and her arms feel like they are being wrung from her shoulders. She wipes the dirt from her body, wincing when she bends. Her lip hasn't healed and she probes the tenderness with her tongue, disliking the coppery taste in her mouth.

She flourishes towards the library, giving a wistful look towards the hospital towering in the distance.

"Lead the way." She says quietly.

She yearns to go to Finn, to see him for herself, but she resists, fatigue suddenly creeping over her as she leans against the tree.

"No, please. After you." Mike holds his hand towards the library and she cuts her eyes at him, holding her side as she walks slowly into the building. She settles on a chair, watching them intently as one by one they enter in after her.

Kurt hovers near the door, wringing his hands as he checks his watch.

"I'm going back to check on Finn. Screw waiting hours, he should be out of surgery by now."

Mercedes nods from beside the door, a heart wrenching ache gripping her as the image of her boyfriend flashes through her mind. She looks at Rachel and sighs sheepishly.

"Sorry."

"You miss him." She whispers.

Mercedes nods, glancing at Artie as he pulls his shivering girlfriend into his arms. Mike and Tina press their foreheads together and Quinn wraps her arms around herself. She misses Noah, and like Rachel, she wants to go to him too, but she's afraid to go, scared to leave when Rachel was like this.

"Do you think you can save him? Sam?"

She doesn't need to read Mercedes as she hesitates. Sam was already a vampire, and on Jesse's side. If they ever ran into him again, he'll be good as dead.

"It's the worst thing to imagine, but he's already gone. I love him, and it hurts like a mother, but he's with Jesse and that dick needs to die."

She stares at the Sidhe Fae, saying the only thing she could think of, even if it means little.

"I'm sorry."

Mercedes offers her a wan smile. "You need to rest."

She shakes her head slowly, tiredness coating her aching bones and her body reclines in the chair.

"Can't... Finn-,"

"Will be fine." Mercedes murmurs.

"You can't know that." Rachel whispers hoarsely.

"We Fae need to take care of our own. Your body is fighting for relief, try and get some rest."

She tries to argue some more, but she can't. Her eyes slip closed despite her defiance and sleep is actually blissful, except for the occasional images invading her mind of Finn roaring towards her with ruby red eyes as Jesse laughs gleefully from beside him.

* * *

Kurt and Blaine are back when she comes to.

Kurt's been crying, his eyes red and his nose runny as Blaine and Sugar try to comfort him.

She tries to lift her head, panicking as she looks at his appearance, dread creeping over her as she fights her body to react. Her injuries are starting to catch up with her and all the energy she so skillfully portrayed earlier is slowly waning as her wounds become more evident.

"How is he?" She manages as Kurt walks over to sit beside her.

"He's still alive, but unconscious. He's lost so much blood-," he hiccups and Blaine is there in the blink of an eye, his hand on Kurt's shoulder. The younger man nods, and dabs at his eyes with an already soaked handkerchief.

"His body is just a mess." Kurt chokes out. "Both legs and arms and pelvis broken, numerous broken ribs. His neck was shredded, he's all bandages and tubes." He stops and pushes his fingers against his mouth.

Blaine sighs and kneels beside Kurt. "They've given him a blood transfusion, it hasn't washed Santana's venom clean from him, but it's there, and he's turning. Slowly."

"No." Kurt gasps.

"That's not supposed to happen." Rachel says, staring at the ceiling.

Finn was supposed to be fine. He was a human, and healthy.

He was supposed to be alright.

She tries to get up again but Mercedes is on her other side, pushing her back down. "Nuh uh home girl. You're going to start bleeding again and if you make your own injuries worse, what then? Are you going to feed?"

Rachel glares at the Sidhe, but she really has little energy left, and if she doesn't feed, she's as good as dead.

Finn.

Her heart breaks at the realization.

He was lying in a hospital bed, unconscious and turning into a vampire while she wasted away because of her own failures. She hates herself for it. She blames herself for Finn getting hurt. Maybe she was better off dead.

"But – but if the vampire who bites him dies, shouldn't he  _not_  turn into a vampire anymore?" Sugar asks suddenly, staring at Rachel.

She really doesn't have the heart to answer her, or speak for that matter, its Quinn who does.

"That's a werewolf Sugar, and Hollywood usually get some things wrong most of the time." She says from beside Rachel, her face expressionless as she stares ahead.

Blaine had told her that Noah was fine; cuts and bruises and a broken arm. He was very much alive. And was still human.

"Werewolves are real?" Sugar says quietly, her face white.

"I'm apparently a Sidhe Fae, we've already met succubi and vampires." Kurt pipes up, glancing at Blaine. "I'm not sure I could deal with werewolves too."

She sees a funny look pass between Tina and Mike before the woman steps forward.

"There's something else. Something you're forgetting." She says quietly. Everyone turns to her.

"Mike changed me because I was dying of cancer. I fell in love with him over time, but still, I owe him my life. Hiram changed Artie because of his broken back in the car accident, the doctors were not sure if he would survive his injuries. And I'm pretty sure, even in death, he's still loyal to his maker."

She looks back at him and Artie stares at her until understanding dawns in his mind the same time it does in hers.

"No, no.  _NO_!" She snarls, her body lifting off the chair in rage. She falls back quickly, coughing up blood as the cut in her side and her broken hip burns with pain.

Tina looks back at her with worried eyes, nodding slowly as she meets Rachel's eyes.

_You have to turn him._

"WHAT?" She asks surprised.

"What?  _What?"_ Quinn and Kurt demand.

"No. Tina. I can't."

"Yes, you can." She kneels beside her and takes Rachel's hand in hers. "I know you don't want to. But you must. If you want to save Finn, you have to do this."

"But I can't!" She growls.

"Can't what?" Kurt hollers, jumping up as he glares between them.

It's Tina who answers, her voice hollow as her words echo in Rachel's mind. "Jesse sired Santana. If Finn dies, and even with Santana dead, he wakes up as Jesse's charge."

Kurt blanches and staggers on his feet.

Blaine's hand tighten on his arms and despite Kurt's reservations, he clings to his boyfriend, his mind spinning with the events of the past three days: his brother's girlfriend is a dhamphyr, his boyfriend was a vampire and now his brother was fighting for his life that would either end in death, or being reborn as something he wasn't exactly sure how he felt about.

He looks up at her wearily. "If you're inside my mind right now, Rachel, I'm sorry. I don't know what else to think, or do." He clutches Blaine's arm tighter, burying his face into the man's chest and cries.

She stares at Kurt, he has someone to comfort him, they all do.

She wishes again that none of this didn't happen: that she hadn't had to kill Santana, that Jesse never wanted to be an egomaniacal fool, that she'd never brought her life anywhere Finn's, and that she'd never met him.

But Tina is right.

When Finn wakes up, as a vampire, the one person he would need to find would be Jesse. Damned who was in his way.

They'd either have to kill him before or lose him after. Jesse was still out there, with Sam, biding his time. And if he had Finn with him, there was no way she could fight him.

"Tina, I can't turn anyone."

"Have you ever tried?"

She shakes her head. "I've never had to. I was told I couldn't."

Mercedes puts her arm around Rachel, looking at Quinn and Tina before sighing. She drops her head and squeezes her eyes closed like what she's about to say is the worst thing she ever needs to say. "The only way for you to be able to turn someone is giving in to the bloodlust. Let your darkness take you."

"Uh, wait a minute. I thought we were trying to  _keep_  her darkness at bay? Not welcome it!" Kurt cries out horrified.

"We were. But Rachel needs to heal. Finn is turning into a vampire as we speak, and he will be loyal to only one, Jesse, and I'm pretty sure that's a bad thing. You can save him, and yourself if you feed from Finn and then turn him."

"I can't." She blinks away hot tears and turns her head from the people all staring at her.

She doesn't want to do this, but if she doesn't, she risks losing Finn for good. Kurt loses his brother and the last of his family and Noah loses his best friend.

And she loses a mate.

She squeezes her eyes closed as she tries to block out the thoughts swirling around her. Everybody has an opinion of why she should or should not turn Finn, but besides the other vampires here, she was the best choice, the only choice.

Artie, Blaine, Mike or Tina had never drunk from a human before. Sending them in after Finn would be a bad idea, and there was the strong possibility after that first taste there would be no turning back.

She turns around and her eyes meet Quinn's and she hears the question as soon as her aunt fathoms the idea.

When Artie had almost fed on Mercedes in the parking lot that night, through him she was tempted. Now that she was willingly going to drink, and from Finn at that,  _could_  she handle it?

"If you can't do this, Rachel. Then we've already lost you both." Mercedes says sadly.

She's almost sure the Sidhe staring at her with knowing eyes is either a mind-reader too, or psychic.

She was thinking the very same thing.

* * *

"We need to go and get him."

Kurt looks over at Mercedes. 'Get' him?"

"Rachel can't just walk into a hospital like this." She explains.

She paces slowly despite Mercedes' caution. Sitting down and just waiting wasn't working for her. She was agitated, impatient and on edge. This was a bad plan. And it could go wrong very quickly.

Like her walking into a hospital with people in pain and dying.

"I'll go. I'm probably faster and quicker than the others here and I can get Finn out and back here before anyone at the hospital realizes he's gone." Mike pushes off from the wall he leans against and walks over to Tina.

"He's attached to a million monitors and a breathing tube in the ICU!" Kurt snaps. "How're you just going to walk out of the hospital with him?"

Mike smiles lightly. "I'll find a way."

"I can't do this." Kurt murmurs. He throws his hands up in the air and walks away. Blaine follows him, whispering consoling words as Kurt sniffles into his hands. He's terrified, and no matter how he looks at it, he's losing his brother.

_I love him Kurt. And I don't want to lose him. I don't want to hurt you anymore, but I know that I can't live without him._

Kurt turns to face her, his glasz eyes red.

It's the first time she's ever admitted her love for his brother, but there's no other explanation for the intensity of her feelings. She's never felt this strongly about anyone, human or otherwise, and it's nothing like the familial love she has for Quinn and Artie. She needs him to live and it's pretty obvious, he needs her to survive this.

Kurt nods, closing his eyes as he silently prays for his brother to be alright. She's never prayed before, but she echoes his words, just in case.

He turns and nods to Mercedes and Mike, the latter who looks at her with understanding and caution. He stares at her for a long while before kissing his wife softly and running quickly from the room.

"Rachel."

She leans her battered body against a wall and looks at Quinn.

_You love him._

She doesn't answer, just closes her eyes and breathes through her nose, ignoring the dull throb in her side as the pain creeps up on her.

It's not too long before she can smell Finn as Mike hurries back with him, his large body secure in his arms. He rushes inside, laying the man's body on three desks pushed together. He's unconscious, his chest moving too slowly as he just lays there.

"Oh God." Kurt hiccups and walks quickly to his brother's body.

"Step aside Kurt. The quicker Rachel gets this over with, the quicker Finn gets back on his feet." Artie says gently.

Kurt glares at everyone in the room, his gaze lingering on Rachel's. But he steps away, retreating to his spot on the wall as she approaches his brother. She glances quickly at him as he starts repeating three words over and over in his mind. Silently she agrees with him.

_Please be OK._

* * *

She crawls over Finn, staring at his face, at the faint swelling over his eyebrow and cheeks. His neck is wrapped up, his side and chest taped up with yards of bandages, pink seeping through. Both arms are broken, encased in slings and his right leg looks almost shredded.

He looks peaceful asleep, but the scent of Santana's venom and the smell of death lingers around him.

"What do I do?" She trails a finger over a spanse of skin, too hot to her touch.

"Just go by instinct." Artie murmurs. "Listen."

She does. His heart sounds like its pumping something thick and viscous, its sounds wrong, and too slow.

She runs her fingertips lightly over his jaw and she's not sure if she's happy or not at the absence of the tingles that usually comes when they touch.

"Try not to kill him? You save him, and save yourself. That's the plan." Kurt mutters nervously.

She turns to him and smiles thinly, slowly putting her finger to her lips to silence him. He narrows his eyes at her and clutches Blaine tighter.

She turns back to Finn, his features relaxed in unconsciousness and slowly tugs the bandage from his neck. The skin there is ugly and red, jagged lines marking one side where the vampire had attacked him. She turns his neck to the other side, bloody but unmarked.

She presses her lips to his neck, feeling the faint pulse under her tongue. She squeezes her eyes closed and sinks her teeth into warm flesh, a terrific sensation erupting over her tongue as sweet nectar flows into her mouth.

She purrs at the taste, her body humming pleasantly as she drinks. She can taste Finn's essence, in his blood, flowing into her with every pull she makes.

Artie moans and makes a step towards her, and Sugar reaches out a hand to hold him back. Kurt and Mercedes stand in front of Mike and Tina with Kurt's katana and a shower rod as they too react to the smell of fresh blood dripping from her lips. She growls at the vampires, eyes flashing dangerously as she glares at them.

 _Mine!_  She shouts her claim in their minds.

She bends her head to feed again, lapping at the ambrosia pulsing from Finn's throat. This is delicious, it's heavenly, and she doesn't know why she's never tried it before. She wasted too much time trying to fight her bloodlust when she could have simply, given in.

Her hands on Finn's face start glowing faint blue and she lifts her eyes to Quinn's, the woman's breathing increasing as she watches, reacting to her feeding. The succubus' eyes start to glow and Rachel turns a predatory smile towards the humans facing her.

It's erotic, she knows. Finn's life force flowing from him to her, mixed with his blood, it's the most incredible feeling ever.

"Shit. Rachel. Whatever  _the fuck_  you're doing, please hurry." Kurt calls out. Blaine is almost panting in desire and want as he flattens himself against a wall, onyx eyes staring at the redness staining Finn's bandages.

She ignores him, pressing her lips harder to the wound on Finn's neck, his body slack and pliant beneath her fingers. She's not finished yet.

"Remember why you're doing this." Mercedes calls out; Rachel's eyes find hers, a shudder running down her spine when they meet.

She blinks lazily at Mercedes and frowns.

Tina whimpers.

She pauses when she can't feel the steady thrum of Finn's heartbeat, its gotten more faint, thudding slowly and out of sync with hers.

She wipes her mouth with the back of her hand then looks at Kurt who's staring with wide eyes at his brother's still unconscious body on the desk. She smiles cruelly, her eyes flashing as she presses her teeth to Finn's neck again.

He screams suddenly, resurfacing to consciousness as his hands try uselessly to push her away. She grips him tighter, his blood now clean from Santana's infection. It would be easy to keep drinking, to quench this newfound thirst rolling around inside her. This blood is delicious, and she doesn't want to stop, all it would take is a few more pulls, to drain the human in her arms completely.

"Rachel!" Mike calls out. He glares at her and shakes his head slightly.

She frowns at him then sighs. She's supposed to turn him. Finn.

There's a new taste in her mouth as she acknowledges this. A tart sweetness that flows from her into the wound she made in Finn's neck. He chokes out a groan, his heartbeat speeding up as her own essence trickles into his bloodstream.

She kisses the wound lightly and pulls away. Finn collapses onto the table, his heart stuttering lightly before starting to beat faster than a hummingbird's wing.

She swings her legs over the side, daintily hops off the table and flits over to Kurt, curving her palm around his cheek.

"Your brother was delicious."

"Yea, well, I'm not on the menu." He snaps, slapping her hand away.

"Oh yeah?" She wraps her hand around his neck, pushing him against the wall. His pulse throbs beneath her fingertips and she really only has to tilt his neck to the side and lower her head to drink.

Blaine growls and pulls her from him, shoving her into the chairs. Rachel gets up and rushes over to Blaine, grabbing him by the shirt and flinging him into a wall.

Kurt screams and runs over to him, looking back at Rachel with fearful eyes.

She walks over and crouches down beside them, wagging her finger at the vampire.

"Don't ever do that again, lover boy."

Mike and Tina grab her hands, pinning her against the wall as Mercedes and Sugar hover around Finn.

"Really, again with this?" She snarls, eyes twinkling as she looks at them.

She rolls her shoulder and frees her hands quickly, shoving them away from her, smirking. She pushes herself away from the wall then wavers slightly on her feet before falling to her knees. She grabs her chest and moans; it feels like her heart is beating a mile a second.

"What's happening to her?" Kurt cries out.

Quinn and Artie hurry over to her and she waves them away, attempting to get to her feet. She topples over onto the ground instead, hitting her head hard. They turn her over on her back, lifting her quickly as Tina pushes over another desk towards them.

Her head spins, lights dancing behind her eyes, her chest and head throbbing.

"What's wrong? What's going on?" Quinn's voice sounds hollow, like she's walking through a tunnel ten miles away.

Through half-lidded eyes she sees Mercedes' hovering by her head. She strokes Rachel's cheek and her eyes flutter closed.

"Finn -,"

She's vaguely aware of Quinn and Artie questioning Mercedes again. The Sidhe's voice sounds faint as she explains.

"She just sired her soulmate. While he changes, she'll sleep."

She tries to look over at Finn, but her head feels like it's encased in lead. She closes her eyes, the frantic beating of Finn's heart pulling her into unconsciousness.


	12. eleven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everything changes once Finn's awake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for some fluff, a lil craziness, some darkness and true to form, naughtiness!

_I'm sorry sweetheart. But I have to do this. I don't know the kind of life you're going to have, but this at least, should make it easier for you._

The woman with the voice like hers and flowing chestnut-coloured hair whispers at the edge of her memory. She hums an old lullaby, murmuring soft apologies to a sleeping baby. It's her, Rachel knows. Shelby regrets having to leave, but Jesse was too unpredictable and if she didn't do something about him, Rachel would never be safe.

She rests a small silver amulet around one of the posts of an old crib and tells her one day, it will serve its purpose.

The woman disappears and the sudden darkness is replaced by the figure of a hard, cold-eyed Jesse, a scowl on his face as crimson drips thickly from his lips. He smirks at the listless body in his hands and then tosses it carelessly aside.

He looks wildly around him, then snarls and stalks away back into darkness, kicking the body as he passes it, a pale-skinned, chestnut-haired woman.

Jesse had really signed his own death warrant, ten times over.

Anger burns hot in her belly as Rachel struggles to wake from her nightmare, her heart beating too fast as air forces itself into her lungs as she nears consciousness.

As she becomes more aware of her surroundings, eleven heartbeats greet her and her chest clenches painfully when she recognizes the rapid-beating of that of a newly-changed vampire. Everyone is still here and even though she doesn't recognize the last heartbeat she hears, she knows it's of another vampire.

She opens her eyes and looks around, seeing the familiar dark pink drapes of her bedroom. It's late afternoon, judging by the pale sunlight peeking in. A strange instinct replaces the anger in her belly and she sits up slowly. She listens briefly before racing towards Artie's room where Kurt and Mercedes have taken up vigil on either side of the large body on the bed. A tall mocha-complexioned man stands at the foot of Artie's bed.

She steps between the vampire and the bed, glaring. She's still weak and and she has no idea who this man is and even though Mike and Artie are just in the next room, anything unknown to her is a threat to herself and her mate.

She almost lost Finn once, and damned if she loses him again.

_I mean you no harm._

She blinks slowly at the vampire and forces herself into his mind. It's easier now: every sound clearer, images sharper and smells stronger. There is a familiarity in his mind, she realizes. She _feels_ her father's aura surrounding this man and he gives her a gentle smile, uncrossing his arms as he tries to appear as non-threatening as possible.

He knew her father, in a time long before her mother, but was like Mike and Tina, a traveller. LeRoy.

"Why are you here? LeRoy." Her voice sounds hollow and strange and Mercedes and Kurt look up sharply, as if they're just realizing she was in the room. LeRoy smiles at her softly but before he can speak, Mercedes gets up and the vampire steps back from her, a wary look on his face as his grey eyes follow the Sidhe.

"Rachel? How're you feeling?" Mercedes touches her shoulder lightly. Rachel stares at the vampire as he peers back at her, surprise on his face and in his thoughts. He was expecting her to recoil from Mercedes, pretty much the same way he just did.

 _Why?_ She frowns at him.

LeRoy furrows his brow.  _Her necklace._

Hanging around Mercedes' neck, nestled in her bosom is a silver amulet, much like her mother's. She touches it and Mercedes bends her head to look, smiling shyly as she meets Rachel's eyes.

"Your mother's. I figured since you didn't have much use for it, I'd benefit from the protection. I hope you don't mind."

She shakes her head. She's surprised though. She had given that to Finn, left it on him the same night they'd found Mercedes.

"It was in your room when they brought you back here." Mercedes answers, seeing her perplexed look.

"I left it with Finn. The night you were attacked, I put it around his neck while he slept. Santana shouldn't have been able to touch him if he was wearing it that night."

"He wasn't wearing it when he came home. Maybe he took it off?" Kurt says quietly from behind them. His eyes are red rimmed and his clothes are disheveled and he looks like he hasn't slept in days. She looks briefly towards the vampire standing silently on the other side of the room and he inclines his head towards her, slipping from the room. She turns back towards Kurt and he's staring at his brother, a sad, broken look on his face.

Finn.

The rapid rise and fall of his chest is the only indication that he was alive.

She steps to his side and touches her fingertips to his face. His skin is soft, and hot to her touch, tingling when they meet skin to skin. They've cleaned the blood from his body, the bandages and slings gone; his skin is clean, pale in the waning light, no scars or blemishes visible. His thick hair messy and wild, falling over his forehead, his jaw firm, cheeks scruffy, the smattering of freckles over his nose and those marks on his chin, her fingers trace them, caressing his lips, brushing over long lashes dusting his cheeks. He looks just like she remembers but yet different.

His body seems larger, firmer, stronger. His arms are well-toned, his chest broad and sculpted. Her eyes trail over his new well-defined body, covered from the waist down and through the sheet she can make out his muscled thighs and legs, long limbs still pale but now  _more_.

He's eerily beautiful.

"Down girl." Mercedes murmurs from behind. Kurt stares over at her with wide eyes as he starts breathing harder. She's hungry, yes, but not for blood.

She tries to relax, shooting the Sidhe woman a sheepish smile and Kurt glares at her, shaking his head as if to clear it. In Quinn's room, her aunt throws Noah against a wall, kissing him when he winces from the pain. Artie stares at Sugar, Mike and Tina close their eyes, foreheads pressed together. LeRoy is just stunned, his mind whirling of memories past. She quickly pulls her mind away from his.

Goosebumps erupt over her skin when her fingers trail over Finn's bare arm. She's not getting anything from him, his mind is still mercifully silent to her prying mind; she's not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing right now. After all, he's still changing.

Four days, she had been unconscious for four days. And Finn was still sleeping.

* * *

Their living room is crowded.

She's left with Kurt and Finn in Artie's room while Mercedes busies herself making something for the humans to eat. Quinn changes Noah's bandages and Blaine and Tina are just surveying the room. Sugar is asleep, her breathing erratic as her small body sleeps fitfully on the chairs pushed together while Artie keeps sneaking peeks over at her.

He, Mike and LeRoy are conversing quietly, their thoughts screaming at her as they brainstorm ideas to deal with the aftermath of Finn & Pucks's attacks, the destruction of their apartment and his sudden disappearance from the hospital. By all reports, Finn was barely alive when he and Noah had been brought in and while the doctors really had done all the could, they hadn't thought he would survive for much longer.

Kurt wasn't yet aware of the plan, and outside of the people currently in the apartment, he would be alone, without immediate family. She listens closely, because even though it was technically true, it was the only idea that would work.

For all intent and purposes, Finn Christopher Hudson was dead, his body cremated per his only living relative's - Kurt's - request, and there was paperwork to back this up, including a DNR and a signed death certificate.

He and Noah were attacked by persons unknown, left beaten and unconscious in their apartment. A neighbour saw the door ajar and the devastation of the room and called emergency services. Finn was taken into surgery where doctors worked diligently to save his life and after nine hours of surgery he was left in ICU to recover, but later died from a blood clot in his brain. He was pronounced dead and his body immediately cremated.

Noah Puckerman was treated for his injuries and released in the care of Kurt Hummel.

_It's plausible._

LeRoy shakes his head, looking around the room.

"Does she always do that?" He mutters out loud.

"What? Just pop a thought into your head randomly?" Quinn asks, settling a clean bandage over a scar on Noah's arm.

Rachel snickers at Noah focusing on Quinn's breasts as he tries to ignore the pain while she dresses his injuries. Her aunt just pretends to not notice, deliberately not doing anything to alleviate his pain because of it.

"You get used to it." Artie chuckles.

She appreciates the levity of the atmosphere because no one has yet to mention the lingering threat of Jesse and his remaining minions still at large, they were all just focused on getting Finn and Noah through the next few days, Finn in particular. Artie, Blaine and Mike still did random checks of the area around them, since she refuses to leave Finn's side.

Spring Break had long passed and the campus was already busy as per usual and even though their previous fight had basically gone unnoticed, they might not be so lucky, and it was all speculation as to what Jesse and his band of vagabonds were up to. All they could do was wait, all she was doing was wait. For Finn to wake.

She hovers by Finn's head, flitting quietly from one side to the next, impatient and on edge.

"Would you  _please_  stop doing the blurring thing? You're giving my headache a headache." Kurt growls.

"What if I did something wrong, Kurt? What if I waited too long to change him? What is Santana's venom was too far gone for me to change him? Kurt, what if he hates me?"

"Rachel, I'm pretty sure there is nothing you can do to make my brother hate you. He practically worships the ground you walk on. But, I'm a mere Sidhe fae," he jokes wearily, "what do I know?

She gives him a small smile and takes her seat again, rubbing the back of her hand over Finn's jaw. He looks so peaceful asleep but she wishes she could just shake him awake, watch the amber-coloured eyes staring back at her. Alive and just like the human she fell in love with.

A little while later Blaine comes in with Mercedes. They insist Kurt should shower, try and eat something, get some rest and of course he refuses. They looks askance at her and she looks strange in their eyes, features weak and drawn. She needs to feed, just as much as Kurt needs to sleep. She's not hungry for blood though and she now understands LeRoy's confusion earlier with Mercedes and her necklace.

She stashes the thought in the back of her mind, ignoring the eyes staring at her while she stares at Finn. They're actually waiting on her to flip out like earlier. She fights the smile stretching on her face as she reads their minds.

Artie and Quinn appear in the doorway, staring at them. She ignores them, already knowing what they're going to say. Kurt looks at her and then at the doorway and then at Blaine, sighing.

"Rachel."

She ignores him too. Quinn huffs and breezes into the room her hands on her hips as she glares at Rachel.

"You need to feed."

She steels her gaze at the succubus and shakes her head. "I can't."

"Can't? Or don't want to?"

She turns back to Finn, feeling Kurt's eyes on her face. "I love him, and I know he loves me. I  _can't_  feed from anyone else."

* * *

Her body feels heavy, tiredness still clinging to her bones. She's hungry, starving actually, but her well-being is of little importance compared to Finn. She's been awake a full twenty-four hours and he's yet to move.

She claims Kurt's now empty seat, left alone to watch an unconscious Finn, silent and still. Mercedes had finally convinced Kurt to go and take a shower, the normally put-together man looking frail and unkempt. Blaine leaves his side briefly to get clothes from their apartment - which was still a crime scene.

Artie refuses to let Sugar go back home, so she now had become a temporary resident in their apartment, along with Noah, who was still a bit woozy with his hand wrapped in a sling and stitches on his cheek and eyebrows. He was asleep in Quinn's room, with Sugar asleep in hers. Artie's room was better equipped for Finn's ... situation, and until he woke up and they could determine what side he was on, it would be easier to restrain him here.

The thought was uncomfortable.

Mercedes' wanders back in sometime after eight that night, balancing a tray with two plates of food. She hands one to Rachel, going on Finn's other side to sit with her own.

"Mercedes. You do know I don't  _need_  to eat, right?"

"I do, but I'm eating, and you look like crap." Mercedes glares at her. "You don't need food to sustain yourself, but you're running on empty and Finn's still unconscious, and we don't know who he'll want when he wakes up. I'm just saying, the least you can do is eat, it might help."

She chuckles at her friend, twirling the steak and potatoes around her plate with a fork.

They sit in comfortable silence for a while, Mike coming in to take their plates, he glares playfully at Rachel before waltzing back out. Random thoughts and images float around Mercedes' mind, the picture of Sam popping up now and then and an imagine of a white-haired black woman with a cane and kind eyes.

"What's a leanan sídhe?"

She turns and stares at Mercedes, the other girl's eyes confused as she stares at Finn's prone body.

The woman turns her head slowly towards Rachel, repeating the phrase in her mind, trying to find an understanding. "I don't know that term. Where did you hear that?"

"From you, just now."

Mercedes' frowns and shakes her head. "I've never heard that before. How could you have heard that from me?"

Rachel shakes her head, pressing her fingers to her temple. "I could have sworn -, you were staring at Finn, and - and thinking of your grandmother and the term  _leanan sídhe_  flickered through your mind."

Rachel's eyes bore into Mercedes as the other girl watches her carefully. Mike walks in between them, staring thoughtfully at Finn.

"What were you thinking about, Mercedes?"

She furrows her brow while she thinks. "My grandmother. And the stories she used to tell me. About Sidhe and the Fae kin." She nods over at Finn. "He's like me, but different. He's healing faster than I did, and not just from the change."

"Your grandmother must have mentioned the leanan sídhe to you before, and Rachel heard it in your memories. There's no other way she could ever hear that. Leanan sídhes are just about as rare as dhamphyrs." Tina says excitedly from the doorway. She blurs over to Rachel and takes her hand.

 _Don't you see? "That'_ s why you can't read Finn. He's a leanan sídhe. They're Fae kin, a special kind of Sidhe, even they are rare among their kind."

Rachel glances at Finn and then back to the tiny, vibrating vampire in front of her. She's not talking - or thinking straight.

"What's so special about the leanan sídhe?" Quinn murmurs.

Mike seems to catch on to what his wife has caught onto and he grins widely, sauntering over them.

"They're born once in a lifetime. They're meant to be a sweetheart, confidant, true love – a true soulmate to a human or a Fae. They're for inspiration, comfort, arms of solace for their mate. A literal embodiment of their mate's other half."

Rachel turns her eyes to Finn then looks around the room. Mercedes is grinning at her when their eyes meet.

"You only feel truly safe when you're with him, right?"

She nods absently, her mind swimming as all the facts seem to come together.

"You can't read him, and the one thing you crave most of the time is silence. Being with him, beside him, he gives you that." Artie murmurs thoughtfully.

"He was never afraid of you. Because he was your other half. Your soulmate." Kurt whispers loudly. She looks over at him but he's staring at Blaine.

"Before I even met you, I knew your face this, I can't for the life of me _remember_  where, but when I saw Finn with that vampire at the party, I  _knew_  he was supposed to meet you. I knew you had to be the one to turn him. When Tina said it, I just knew. He literally is the other part of you. You two were made for each other."

Since meeting Finn, she had entertained the idea, but didn't put much stock in it earlier. When Mercedes said it the night she had to turn him, she didn't have much time to worry about that, she had passed out immediately. But Mercedes is practically beaming and Tina looks high from the revelation of so much. Soulmates aren't unheard of in her world, and hers is lying before her, unconscious, his body and mind changing.

"You're practically married." Mike grins at her.

"You sired him, Rachel. You two are tied together for eternity, or as long as you both shall live." Artie jokes.

_As his sire, you can wake him._

Tina nods her head slightly, nodding her head as they watch the peaceful features of the man who had captured her heart, both of them not knowing it had already belonged to him.

* * *

She needs to be alone in the room when Finn wakes up. It's Tina who suggests this.

"Why?" Kurt's already at his wits end and to ask him to leave, she hates it but she understands what Tina means.

"Kurt, when your brother wakes up, his first instinct will be to feed. You, Puck, Mercedes and Sugar being here, it's not a very good idea."

"You want me to  _leave_  him? I can just wait in the next room." He pleads, his eyes already red.

_It's better if you go by Blaine's. I promise you I'll come get you as soon as it's safe._

He turns to her with cold eyes. "I hate when you do that."

She doesn't respond, just stares at him silently. She doesn't try to touch his mind again, she really needs to be more considerate, but right now, Finn is of the utmost importance.

Blaine touches his boyfriend's shoulder and Kurt turns to him, his shoulders slumping as he resigns to the idea. Noah walks over to him, putting his good arm around him, turning to Rachel.

"You call as soon as he's up."

She nods and LeRoy steps forward.

"We've secured rooms at the Marriot, reserved under my company's name, Phoenyx Industries." He opens a folder with five keycards and one by one the humans slowly step forward to claim one. He offers the last to Mike and Tina.

"All the rooms but the have been proofed." He turns twinkling eyes to Noah, a small smile on his face. "Yes, yours too, we can't be too careful."

He turns back to Rachel, his smile falling away. "As soon as it's safe to leave here, I'll ready the plane to take you to your father's house in Essex. Artie and I have several identifications fitting for Mr. Hudson, you two can decide whenever you're ready."

She looks over her shoulder at her best friend and his smile is grim. "We can't stay here."

"I'm not running away from Jesse." She says, her eyes flashing. Kurt drops his face onto Blaine's shoulder.

"No, Rachel. I'm not saying we should run away. But Finn can't stay here. He's dead, remember?" Quinn says, stepping forward.

Behind her Kurt winces and whimpers silently.

"To the rest of the world." Quinn flits her eyes towards him with an apologetic look and back to Rachel. "He's too well-known on campus, if we stay around here, with Finn, it'll be too difficult making them believe he's dead."

"And Kurt? You expect us to just leave him behind? Noah?"

She narrows her eyes at her aunt. There was no way she was leaving Noah behind. And Noah, it would be hard convincing him to leave Kurt behind, even if he was with Quinn. She can hear the doubt warring in his mind even now.

Quinn doesn't say anything, she walks towards Noah and straight into his arms. Again, everyone was coupled up, leaving her alone. No, not alone. A painful pang from Mercedes reaches her and she steps over, wrapping her arms around her new friend. Mercedes grips onto her tightly, blinking away tears.

"Let's just give Finn some privacy, alright guys? Mike, Artie and LeRoy can stay behind." Tina looks around the room, kind eyes settling on Rachel again. "Just in case."

She walks over to Kurt, pulling him from Blaine and Noah's arms and he falls into her embrace. "Kurt. I love Finn. And I didn't want things to happen this way, but I will do everything in my power to make sure he's safe from now on."

She closes her eyes and rests her forehead against his.  _Even if I have to die in the process._

She opens her eyes to find Kurt staring at her, and finally he nods, kissing her cheek softly before turning to leave, Blaine and Noah behind him. Quinn follows Noah out and then Mercedes and Tina.

"Well." LeRoy flourishes his hand towards the bedroom.

She stands just outside Artie's bedroom door as the remaining vampires walk towards the kitchen. Artie pulls out a bottle of wine, grabs three glasses and they settle around the kitchen table with a pack of cards.

"Let the fun begin."

* * *

She kinda hopes she could read his mind. At least then she would have had some idea of how to respond when Finn woke up.

She's new to the whole siring aspect, and all Mike could tell her was that she'd feel a sense of responsibility and she should just take it slow, help to get used to the change. That would be easy, you know, if she were fully a vampire.

Everything is strange, what she is and she's done has never been done before so basically, they're just playing it by ear.

She stares at Finn's bare chest, counting his heartbeat, willing him to wake. It stops suddenly, thuds in his chest once, twice then speeds up again. She holds her breath when his eyes slowly open and his heartbeat becomes a dull background beat. Finn looks around the room, his eyes lingering on everything before he sits up, inhaling and then spinning around to look at her.

"Hi."

She's vaguely aware of the other three vampires in the room outside listening, ready to move should she call.

"Hi yourself."

The side of his mouth pulls up in a smile and he turns around again to survey the room, tilting his head to the side, his eyes looking towards the doorway then back at her, his brow furrowed.

"I can smell you. And Artie in the kitchen. With two other men." He sniffs the air.

He turns wide eyes to her, frowning. He looks down at himself, bare-chested in pyjama pants and barefoot then back to her.

"Rachel? What happened?"

Suddenly he clutches one hand to his chest, dropping one hand to the bed, moaning as his heartbeat speeds up again. "My heart…"

She's beside him before his heart can thud once. "Finn, what do you remember?"

"Pain." He croaks. "My body felt like it was on fire."

He looks up at her, fear evident on his face. "Santana." He breathes.

"Finn-,"

"No, Jesse's after you Rachel!"

He shoves her aside and flies from the room, moving too fast for the other vampires to catch him in the room, but Mike flits to the front door the second Artie and LeRoy grab his shoulders when he pushes Finn away from it. He's tosses them off easily, shoving them to opposite ends of the room.

She needs to slow him down somehow so she grits her teeth and twirls Kurt's katana in her hand then slices Finn's shoulder with the blade. He curses loudly and falls to his knees. LeRoy grabs one arm, Artie the other and Mike curls his arm around Finn's neck, holding him back and tilted up.

"Calm down Hudson." He growls.

"Go to move Mike?" She grins.

"It works." He smirks.

She shakes her head, crouching in front of her boyfriend, her hands on his cheek. "Finn."

He grits his teeth in pain, his eyes boring into hers. She strokes his jaw, her touch soothing as she tries to calm him, his cut would heal in a minute.

"Rach… baby." He chokes out, shaking his head slowly. "Jesse."

"He's not here. You're at my apartment. With friends. Like you." She says slowly.

Her touch does nothing. Finn still winces in pain from the ache in his shoulder as he tries to look wildly about the room, no doubt wondering about the men holding him back as he struggles to get free.

"Baby, calm down."

Déjà vu? She looks at Mike and he grins easily back at her.

 _Ease up, will you._  He does, a little.

"Finn, baby. You have to calm down. You're pretty strong and freaking out the rest of us. Please?"

He closes his eyes, breathing deeply and when he opened his eyes again, the bright red orbs are scared and curious, but less threatening and his body relaxes.

"Rachel, what happened?"

"What's the last thing you remember?" She rests her palm on his jaw and he leans into her touch. It comforts him, and her, the familiar tingling when their skin touches.

He stares, his brow furrowed as he tries to remember. "We fought and I left to go home. Kurt was there and he was pissed then he left." His eyes widened and he started struggling again. LeRoy and Artie grunted.

"Kurt!"

"Baby, look at me. He's fine. He's safe. I promise you."

He searches her eyes, seems to believe she's telling the truth and his shoulders sag, the fight leaving him. The three other vampires breathe simultaneous sighs of relief.

"Santana. She came by, told me Jesse was after you." He shakes his head. "It gets weird after. Like I'm in pain. Terrible pain. Like I was gonna die. I thought of you. People sticking me, bright lights. Flying." He tries to look behind him at Mike.

"You. I saw you and a woman." He turns back to Rachel and frowns. "Did you bite me?"

She shrugs lightly.

"How did you bite me? You told me you couldn't -,"

She sees the second he realizes what's happened. She tells him. Explains everything she knows. Santana. Jesse. Noah. She introduces Mike and LeRoy. Finn listens to her attentively, watching her eyes as she speaks, still held back by the three vampires. Something mixed with awe, fear and excitement creeps over his features.

"I'm a vampire."

It's not a question. And that one revelation seems to quiet him.

_Let him go._

Artie stares at her and she nods.

Finn stares at her in total adoration, not realizing when they'd freed him. She stands and helps him to his feet. He still towers over her, his body huge against her small frame.

Tentatively, he reaches out to cup her cheek. Her fingers wrap around his hand, holding its warmth there.

"You're so beautiful."

She blushes, touching his arm. "I can pretty much say the same thing about you."

He grins and pulls her into his chest. His smell envelopes her, all man and cinnamon heat. It's her Finn. Every part of him still.

Artie lingers in the doorway until Mike tugs him away, the three of them running off to go and hunt.

 _Be careful._ Artie thinks back at her as they disappear.

"How do you feel?" She murmurs to his arm. It's still familiar, and it makes her happy that even with the new strong contours of his chest, her safe haven was still there.

"Alive. Strong. Happy. Hungry."

She chuckles and pulls away. "You've been asleep almost five days. You're bound to be hungry. The others just left to go hunt, but I'm sure I can find you something Artie left in the freezer, or I could call them back?"

He shakes his head as he stares down at her.

"Are you alright?"

She nods and presses her hand into his.

"Are you sure? You look nervous. You know I would never hurt you, right?"

"I know."

She stares up at him, his eyes shining with intense emotion as he gazes down at her, holding her gaze, hair flopping over his forehead, thick and messy as always.

"You love me, don't you?"

She nods her head shyly, pulling her eyes from his and rests her head on his firm chest. He's more imposing now, a gentle giant, more defined as a vampire and he's definitely more sexier than he was as a plain human. She wonders if it's possible that he's inherited some of her more latent charms.

"Rachel."

"Hmm."

"Look at me."

She pulls herself from his embrace to meet his eyes again.

"This isn't your fault."

"Isn't it?"

"No. It was happening long before you came along. It's just happy coincidence that you happened to be my saviour and my soulmate." He smiles at her, one side of his mouth pulling up as he looks at her, brushing the side of her mouth with his thumb.

"Santana's gone. She's the only one to blame for this." He murmurs.

"No." She shakes her head. "Jesse's still out there. This won't be over until he's dead."

"Then we'll find him, and then we'll kill him."

She looks up at him, her brows furrowed. "Somehow I get the strange feeling that you're taking this 'I'm-a-newborn-vampire-thing a lot too calmly. Really, it doesn't freak you out?"

Finn bends his head, softly touching his lips to hers. She sighs, her stomach fluttering and wraps her arms around his neck. She  _misses_ this.

"I told you I knew you wouldn't hurt me. And according to Mercedes, we were  _meant_  to be together, so maybe that's why I accepted you so easily." He kisses her again and lifts her easily in his arms, her legs automatically winding around his waist.

He pushes his hands through her hair, pulling away from her slightly, bright red eyes staring into hers.

"And you saved me." He says quietly. He stares at her as he kisses her.

"Sometimes, I could hear you guys talking. I heard what Tina and Mercedes said. I'm sorry you had to go through that but would it be weird if I said I'm glad you did?"

His dimples peek out as he looks up at her. She cradles his face in her hands, her thumb ghosting over his cheeks.

"I didn't want this for you."

He nods minutely. "I know."

"You were supposed to live a full, long and happy life, get married, have babies and grandbabies, with a white picket fence and a dog." She traces the marks on his lower jaw and he catches her fingers in his hands, pressing them to his lips.

"I don't need to do all that." He kisses her fingertips again. "I can still have a full," kiss, "long", kiss, "happy life." Kiss. "I can still get married." Kiss. "White picket fence and a dog." He kisses her palm this time.

She drops her forehead against his and sighs.

"You make it sound so easy."

"Why can't it be? If Artie and Blaine can do it, why can't I?"

"I don't know." She whispers.

"Rachel. Look at me."

She does, blinking slowly at his breath fans over her. Finn was always charming, but beautiful and charming, a girl could get in trouble.

"I'm not sorry for this. I admit, I thought about it a lot more than I should have ever since you told me what you were, and I had hoped it would have been under happier circumstances, but I can do this. I love you and we can be together and we can  _do_  this  _together_." He searches her eyes earnestly, his hand wrapped around her palm pressed to his heart.

She wants to believe him, she does. But the lingering doubt is heavy on her heart and she's finding it hard to forgive herself, even though she really has nothing to blame herself for.

This can all be laid at Jesse's feet.

"We have to get rid of Jesse."

Finn's eyes glint dangerously in the dark and his nostrils flare at the mention of Jesse's name.

"I think Santana wanted to kill him, apparently if she had succeeded in turning me I would have been hers to command, easily able to overthrow Jesse. She wanted power."

"She's dead. And Jesse will soon join her."

He nods, staring at her lips. Before he can kiss her, she puts her hand between their mouths, tipping his face to watch his eyes.

"I still can't read your mind."

His eyes flicker to her lips and back to her eyes and he smirks dangerously. "Oh?"

She shakes her head, rubbing her thumb over his lips and he kisses her fingertip.

"Well. Since you're the one who turned me, does that mean I have to follow your every command? Mistress." His voice drops deviously low, sensual as it creeps over her. She shivers in his arms, it was entirely possible that maybe, just maybe he had inherited some of her own charms; she needed to talk to Tina and Mike.

"Not command, per se, but I did sire you."

Finn's fingers trail over her neck and her nipples pebble against his bare chest.

"Then," he presses his lips to her neck, his tongue licking from her pulse point to her ear. "What is your wish, sire?"

She giggles, her eyes flashing, voice husky when she speaks.

"Hmm. Let me think."

She pretends to tap her cheek and Finn kisses the spot. She moves to her ear and he kisses that too. She touches her neck and he growls and attaches his lips there, teeth gently scraping.

She shivers in his arms again, her legs wrapping tighter around his waist, his chest hard against her softness. She grabs his head and presses their lips together, moaning when his tongue forces its way into her mouth.

"Let's try out this vampire thing. I really want to fuck you on that football field. You know, full circle and all."

Finn's eyes glint in the moonlight and his smile spreads slowly. He kisses her again and takes off through the door towards the field, whispering in her ear as they speed away.

"As you wish, m'lady."

 


	13. twelve

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With a newborn vampire for a boyfriend and a vindictive vampire out to kill her, Rachel is having the time of her life. Well, sort of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: I believe this is long overdue, but my apartment (and computer) is finally mine again and peace and quiet and all is good with the world. Welcome finchel smut army, to this training exercise. Caution: warnings for a lil fluff, some darkness and as much smut as I can possible squeeze in. Again, I have to mention the variety in this mythology - if you were expecting cut and clear mythos, sorry, no going.

_  
twelve_

" _Fuck me_."

It's really the only coherent thing she can utter at this precise moment.

Her head slams back against the concrete and rubble rains down beside her as she moans, her fingers digging into the wall, sweat beading on her forehead. He was killing her with pleasure, pushing her closer and closer to the brink of insane pleasure, one orgasm after another as her body dissolves and her mind blew apart, the sensation of him inside her the only thing putting her back together.

"Baby." She gasps out.

Finn hums against her, his tongue flicking against her wetness and she closes her eyes as lights kaleidoscope behind them, as bright and intense as the orgasm that washes over her. His hands holding her legs around his neck suddenly move to her hips and in the next moment he's pressing her chest into the wall, fingers threaded through hers over her head as he pushes into her from behind, the force of his entry making the last tendrils of her last orgasm explode anew.

"I think you like that." His lips move against the skin beneath her ear, nipping lightly as his fingers brush over her breast, pinching her nipples.

Her only response is a grunt.

She does. She  _really_  does.

She's had many lovers before (and counting that one relationship she's always regretted), but Finn still remains the only human she's ever slept with. As well as the only human she's ever turned, or been with since their turning. With these series of firsts, sex has never been this good. It's different, so far removed from their first time together. And in the short time Finn has been changed, they're almost the same now, it's nothing like she's ever imagined.

Finn's hand closes over her breast as he buries himself deep, stroking long and hard inside her.

Her body shivers against the wall as he drives into her over and over, bodies slick with sweat, carnal need driving his hips forward as she pushes back to meet him, skilled fingers raking over her nipples as he fucks her through the waves of pleasure still washing over body.

Her knees shake and she bites her lip, growling as Finn playfully laughs at her, warm breath washing over her, his lips skimming her cheek, tongue licking at the sweat gathered there.

"Your skin tastes awesome." He whispers. She can still feel his smile against her cheek.

She grunts and pushes him away from her, turning around to smirk at the look on his face. Finn was strong, and fast. But she was stronger, and faster.

She pushes him back, and he falls onto his ass on the locker room floor. She grins and falls atop him, hiking her skirt up as she straddles him, threading her fingers through his over his head and sinks her body slowly onto his.

Finn's eyes flash bright gold before melting back into warm amber and he tugs his hands free, crushing her to his chest, hands on either side of her face, his mouth taking hers, tongue driving deep as his hips mimic the movement, thrusting harder, deeper.

She nips at his bottom lip and Finn growls, his hands falling to settle at her waist where she twists and gyrates above him.

" _Christ_ , that feels good."

His head falls back with a thud and she licks a trail from his neck over his chin to breathe against his lips, "wrong name."

She pushes up on her hands, scraping her nails over his chest, smiling when Finn hisses, his hand on her waist gripping tighter.

She rides him. Hard.

The sound of wet skin slapping on wet skin loud in the room.

The first time they were like this, in this very room, she'd had to hold back, careful not to hurt him.

Now, Finn matches her thrust for thrust, his fingers digging into her hips, one hands creeping slowly over her stomach, passing lightly over her breasts, curling around her neck, fingers threading in her hair as he slams her body down, hard, onto his.

She cries out with every jerk of his hips, power surging through him into her, swirling around them, the room hot and heady with their lovemaking. Her body was on fire, lust moving through her veins as Finn's essence sought to calm the dark hunger that constantly plagued her.

The tingling starts in her fingers this time, where they're scraping over his firm chest. It moves up her hand, over her arm, meeting the fire smoldering in her core where Finn's thrusts get deeper and deeper.

"Finn…"

His hand moves to cup her cheek, the other one burning her skin as his hips jerk up to hers.

"Let go, baby girl."

His voice washes over her like a silken caress, the smile stretching across his face, warm and eager with the promise of more, a lifetime of this, this  _feeling._

Her body starts vibrating above him, and her eyes slip closed as the sensation between her legs and deep inside her gets more intense. It feels like she's flying and floating at the same time, inside a huge bonfire as icy goosebumps crawl over skin.

"Rachel," He coaxes her softly, "Look at me."

Her eyes flicker open to meet Finn's, and her breath gets caught in her throat as she gazes at him. His eyes are glowing brighter, a soft golden hue that seems to envelop him, moving down his body and floating slowly over hers.

Unable to control herself, her head falls back and she bites her lip, trying to hold in the scream that's building inside her, her hair brushing against Finn's legs; she can  _feel_  the sparks at the ends of her hair, where it touches his skin, and it adds to the heat already spreading through her body.

Beneath her, Finn moves up onto his elbows, his lips covering the warmth of her skin, tongue curling around a nipple. He supports her body as she bends backward in his arms, his hips slowly pushing up into hers. It feels so good it’s almost painful, pulse after pulse of pleasure tormenting her body as fire, white hot and blinding in its intensity flows through her, energy rippling over her skin as her body fragments and shatters into tiny pieces, reforming themselves in the waves of her orgasm.

She can feel Finn swell even thicker inside her, her muscles clenching around him until his hands grip her hips as he thrusts rough and jaggedly up into her, over and over. His tongue swirls over her shoulder and he growls then buries his teeth in the skin at her collarbone. She’s ablaze all over, flames licking at her skin, inside her skin, deep in her body. He holds her close to his chest as he feeds from her for the first time, shuddering through his own release.

Tiny sparks glitter around them, colours gold and blue and at first she thinks they were remnants of lights flickering behind her eyes as she rides out her orgasm. But as she raises her head to look at him, her hand on his shoulder glows a faint blue, and Finn's skin shimmers a soft gold.

His tongue passes lazily over the pinpricks on her body and lifts his eyes to meet hers, breathing heavily as he fights to control his body. She blinks lazily down at him, her fingers tenderly touching the side of his glowing gold eyes. He does the same, and she can see her own bright blue orbs reflected in his own.

He smiles at her, one side of his mouth lifting up as he leans forward to kiss her softly.

Her heart stutters and the words well up inside her, desperate to spill out from somewhere deep within, urging her forward.

"I love you."

They whisper it at the same time and Finn's smile gets wider, blindingly beautiful as he wraps his arms around her, burying his face in her neck, his heartbeat synching with hers.

She slumps against him, sated for the moment. He was hers, and she was his, in the purest sense of the word; as clichéd as it sounded, for the first in a very long time, she feels, complete.

Finn was still so calm and relaxed, even now, almost a natural at being a creature of the night. At least, some variation of it.

He rubs his thumb under her chin, tilting her face to his and kisses her lightly. And just like the first time that she kissed him when he woke up, she practically mauls him, her fingers burying themselves in his hair, lips firmly pressed onto his. Finn hums happily and she greedily swallows the essence he offers, feeling the power throbbing through him as it pulses into her.

She opens her eyes, and she's not surprised to see the light glow around their bodies.

Finn pulls away, swipes his thumb over her lips and smiles.

"I'll never get tired of that."

* * *

 _You two are almost sickening to watch._ Quinn muses silently.

Rachel flips her off as Finn carries her in bridal style and smiles good-naturedly over to Quinn.

"Now, now. Play nice. Just because Puck's arm isn't fully healed there's no reason to be bitter."

She stares at Quinn and then back up to her boyfriend. Quinn looks confused.

Rachel jumps quickly from Finn's arms, pointing to the blonde.

"She didn't say anything out loud."

Finn frowns at her. "I know. I'm standing right here."

"So how did you know what she said?"

"Said? She didn't  _say_  anything. I just, I dunno,  _felt_  something. Like she was jealous." Finn shrugs, looking between them. "You've been getting more sex - good sex-," he waggles his eyebrows at her blush, "lately than she's been getting all year."

Quinn stares at him with her mouth open. "You felt all that?"

Finn merely shrugs.

The succubus shrieks and throws her hands in air, flying up from her seat and appearing in front of them.

"This isn't fair!"

Finn's eyes widen and he steps back, looking uneasily from Quinn to Rachel, holding his hands up.

"Wait, what did I do now?"

"You!" Quinn fumes and stomps her foot, glaring at Rachel with angry eyes.

Artie sticks his head in and looks around the room. Rachel covers her face, smirking at him. She looks from Finn and Quinn and then back to Artie.

"What did you do now Rachel?"

She holds her hands up innocently, smiling sweetly.

"The fact that you're grinning like a Cheshire cat is evidence enough you did something. Quinn, what is it?" Artie strolls into the room.

“He can sense emotions!” She seethes, jabbing a finger at Finn.

“What?!”

Quinn glares at him as she crosses her hand over her chest.

“Oh, this is good.” She giggles, and claps her hands gaily.

Tina had asked, after she had woken up, right after biting Finn, if she thought it was possible that Finn would wake as a pure vampire. Artie looks at her then, playing over the conversation with Tina in his mind as Finn tugs at his hair in frustration.

“What? I still don’t understand.”

"You’re a vampire alright."

"OK? That's a good thing, right? Isn’t that what we were trying to go for here?" He asks, laughing nervously.

"Yes, but Rachel's a sexual vampire. Well, her mother was."

Finn looks at Artie like he wants him to get to the point already. Subconsciously, he reaches out for Rachel, tucking her neatly under his arm. A ripple of lust washes over her and she bites her lips, looking up at him.

"Stoppit." Quinn snarls out loud.

Artie laughs, his thoughts swimming with mirth as the irony of the situation passes through his mind again.

"Charming, isn't he?"

Rachel laughs out loud at the scowl on Quinn's face.

“Yea well, Finn’s psyche was already raw and perceptive.” She looks up at him. “Did your mother ever tell you that you weren’t breathing when you were born?”

“Wait, what?” he asks, his voice high as he looks at her in shock.

Artie snickers and covers his mouth when Finn glares at him. “Not funny dude.”

He holds his hand up, fighting the grin on his face and Rachel rolls her eyes at him.

“Well, you weren’t. And the night you and Santana crashed, your heart stopped breathing then too.”

He looks around the room and narrows his eyes at Quinn when she frowns, sympathy rolling off her.

Rachel touches his face, turning his attention back to her. “The night at your apartment, after she had bitten you,” Artie growls lightly and she looks over her shoulder at him, turning back to Finn, his eyes intent on her face, “I breathed some of my essence into you. And afterwards, after Mike had taken you from the hospital, I turned you.”

“So?”

“You’re a lot like me more than you are like Artie or Mike.”

Finn’s eyes leaves her face to look around the room at Quinn and Artie and then he moves to fall onto the couch, pulling her down with him. She wraps her arms around him, smiling as he bends to press a kiss to her cheek.

Quinn is annoyed, and she doesn’t have to even turn her head to look at her aunt to know that there’s a scowl on her face. Neither does Finn, he cups her chin and presses his lips to hers and laughs.

“Chill out Quinn.”

"Seriously, I must have pissed someone off in a past life! I get stuck with a mind-reading dhamphyr  _and_ a fricking empathic newborn vampire." Quinn's eyes narrow into slits as she glares at them.

"It's not so bad Quinn."

She cuts her eyes at Artie and turns, moving towards the door.

"I already have a hard time trying to keep one outside of my head, now I have to work just as hard to do that, and keep another one from reading my emotions. Really, Artie?"

Artie shrugs, casting a glance at the two lovebirds sitting in front of him.

"We've learnt how to handle Rachel, we can learn to block to Finn as well."

Quinn curses him silently and yanks the door open. "I'm going to see Noah. You guys have fun here."

Finn jumps to his feet. "Hang on, can I come with? I want to see my brother."

Artie is beside Quinn in the blink of an eye.

"Wait."

"Wait? What? Why?" Finn grumbles.

"Are you sure you can handle seeing him? You've only been fully awake for three days."

"Yeah, and?"

"Are you sure you can handle being around a human, Fae or not, and not want to feed?" He asks bluntly.

Rachel walks up beside them, resting her hand on Finn's arm just as he sets his jaw, glaring at the other vampire.

"It's my brother, dude. You really think I'd eat him?"

"Yes."

Finn's angry frown falls away and he looks down at Rachel.

After their... escapades on the football field the first night he woke up, Finn had been pestering her to go see Kurt and the others. She had disagreed, because a three-hour old vampire could not be trusted around humans, especially family. He was disappointed, and she had to turn his attention... elsewhere, when he started to pout.

His second night awake, while she slept, Artie and Mike had taken him hunting. Finn wasn't a fan of killing, even small animals, and they had raided the blood bank to keep the fridge stocked with donated blood.

He wasn’t too happy that he couldn’t enjoy his pizza and nuggets any more but was placated when Mike shoved a bottle of wine into his hands. At least he still have steaks, bloody rare.

She hadn’t wanted to tell anyone about Finn feeding from her. It didn’t feel like something she should share, something so intimate. The act was so erotic, carnal and debauched. She found, she rather liked when he did.

Just like Artie, he had yet to feed from a human. But unlike Artie, he didn’t have years of control to rely on.

"It'll be fine, right?"

She couldn't know. Finn had excellent control over his urges - they'd actually went to his apartment to collect the rest of his and Kurt and Noah's belongings when they 'officially moved out', at 2am, and Finn had merely sniffed his surroundings, packed what he needed and flitted away quickly behind Mike and LeRoy.

Artie was impressed.

But they hadn’t gone out of their way to actually test his control. How tonight would turn out, she couldn't be sure.

"Artie can come with us. And Mike and Tina and Blaine are all there." He pleads. "Seriously, Rach. I have to see him."

 _Well?_ She asks Artie.

He inclines his head slightly then turns his eyes to Quinn who had been silent throughout the entire exchange.

"Bring him. If he steps one foot out of line, I'll gladly punish him." Her eyes glitter evilly as she tosses her hair over her shoulder and hurries out into the cool night, Artie behind her.

Finn sighs and pushes his hand through his hair. "Why do I think Quinn has it out for me?"

Rachel smirks and pushes him towards the door. "She had a bad experience with an incubus once. I think you're just bringing up bad memories."

His hand finds hers and they walk quickly through the night, towards the hotel, following the blurs of Artie and Quinn.

"But I'm not an incubus."

She looks up at his pout and tips up towards him to kiss it away. "No. But you're pretty close to one. You're going to have to learn how to  _not_ read their emotions Finn. Or manipulate them. I know you didn't mean it earlier, and it's gonna be hard, believe me, Quinn and I used to fight all the time because of it."

"Yea, yea, don't tell me. She'll be much more of a bitch than she already is."

She threads her fingers through his, and laughing, tugs him along to where the others are waiting, gathered in a small circle near the entrance, Tina plucking leaves off one of the trees outside.

"Third floor." LeRoy says, looking between Finn and Rachel. 

_Are you sure about this? We know Santana was drawn to Finn because of his Sidhe blood, and Sebastian to Mercedes. Finn might not attack the others but those two may be in danger._

"Chill dude. He's my brother, I'm not going to hurt him."

She snickers at the surprised shocks from Tina, Blaine, Mike and LeRoy. "Long story."

LeRoy's gaze lingers on Finn and she shakes her head slightly.  _He's not reading your mind. More like what you're_ feeling _._

_Like you?_

_Kind of. Artie thinks he's an empath._

_This should be.._ fun _._

Finn looks over at her again, and she shrugs.

"We had dinner at the restaurant earlier, I took him to his room about midnight. Said he was going straight to bed." Blaine speaks up.

Finn nods at him and looks up again to the third floor.

"The window."

"You don't want to go inside? It’s not like you can go _in_ the room any way.”

His eyes flicker briefly to Quinn before looking back to Rachel.

“If he wants to go to the window Quinn, he can go to the window. Leave him be.” She mutters, looking towards the building, trying to find the easiest way to the window at Kurt’s room.

“Fine, be like that. I’m going up to Noah’s. Don’t listen in. Or try or feel anything.” Quinn mutters. She shakes her finger at Finn and Rachel and stomps off to the front doors.

The others turn to watch her leave before turning back to Finn as he doubles over in laughter.

“I’m almost tempted to mess with her now.”

“No, you won’t.” She laughs and pushes him forward.

He kisses her hand then disappears up the side of the building, looking back down as he knocks at his brother’s window.

She hears Kurt’s yelp as he hurriedly pulls it open.

“Finn! What are -, wait. Are you alright?”

“Yea, man. I’m good.”

She watches Finn hold his hand out, and Kurt gingerly takes it, stepping out nervously onto the sill.

LeRoy and Blaine fidget nervously behind her as Tina and Mike wander off.

Finn hugs his brother tight, inhaling his smell, careful not to crush him before pulling him to sit down on the roof, throwing his legs over the side.

“So.” Kurt starts. He peers over the edge and shakes his head, pulling back with a heavy sigh.

“How’re you feeling?”

“Like Finn.”

“’Like Finn?’ Is that the best you can do? A blood-sucking leech almost drained the blood from your body. I had to watch you almost _die_ and then a half-vampire/sex-vampire _bit_ you and _turned_ you into a vampire. Please! Tell me how you _still feel like_ Finn?!”

She winces and glances back at her to see LeRoy meandering away, Blaine stands with his hands over his chest, staring up at his boyfriend and brother.

Finn rubs at the back of his neck nervously, his eyes downcast.

“I still _feel_ like me. I mean, I remember everything. I’m still me, just, like, _more_. The sun itches like a bitch now though, and I can’t eat pasta and like bread and stuff.”

“No more tofu and veggie food.” He grins at his brother, ruffling Kurt’s hair. His brother laughs lightly and pushes his hand away.

“ _Can_ you eat, though? Like other kinds of food? I know you like your steaks and all.”

Finn grins, his teeth flashing pearly white in the dark. “Yeah. Bloody rare.”

“Oh God.” Kurt covers his face and groans. “Good to see some things haven’t changed.”

“And Rachel?”

Finn looks down at her and winks.

“Rachel’s great. She’s helpful and stuff.”

“Stuff?”

Finn blushes again. “I love being with her. I love her, man.”

“That’s nice. She makes you happy and you look happy. If I didn’t know any better I’d say you’re practically glowing.”

Kurt looks in her direction and tilts his head.

“The sex is awesome.” Finn grins lecherously and she covers her face with one hand, punching Blaine with the other when he laughs.

“Stop, please!” Kurt shrieks, holding his hand up. “I do not want to know about that, please! For the love of God, _don’t say anything else_!”

Finn laughs heartily and runs his hand through his hair.

“OK. So what now?”

“What do you mean?”

“Now. After everything. Your attack. Your _death_. Rachel. What happens now?”

She wants to give them privacy, Kurt's afraid, worrying that Finn will be leaving him behind. No matter how she spins it though, she's managed to split them up, taking them away from each other. It's at the forefront of Kurt's mind, and when he turns his head to look down at her, she knows it’s deliberate.

"I can't stay here Kurt."

His brother sighs and runs his hands through his hair.

"I know."

Kurt looks down again where she's standing with Blaine in the courtyard and she nods up at him, biting her lips as she forces herself to stay away from his mind. Finn pulls him back gently, patting him on the shoulder as his long legs dangle over the edge of the roof.

"So, what's the plan?"

"England."

"What!?"

"You were there, man. LeRoy, Rachel's dad's friend? There's a plane, um, waiting, to take us there. We leave tonight."

Kurt turns to him, his eyes glinting angrily in the darkness.

"Us?"

Finn steels his features, staring out into the darkness.

“Finn? What ‘us’?”

“Vampires.” Finn murmurs quietly.

Kurt flinches but nods slowly.

“And me?”

A heartbreaking look flashes across his brother’s face before he hardens his gaze again.

“You’ll stay here, finish college. Settle down, get married, have a family. And live a long, fulfilled life.”

The memory of the similar conversation she had with Finn earlier flashes through her mind and she looks sidelong at Blaine. He’s trying not to listen to the brothers but given that its 3am, and its silent around them, their voices carry down easily to them in the dark.

Blaine _wants_ a life with Kurt. And just like her, he thinks too much about their obvious differences. Kurt was going to grow old, die one day. Blaine wouldn’t.

He glances at her, but isn’t able to bury the thought before it flits across this mind: what if he changes Kurt too?

She looks back to the roof at Finn and Kurt and sighs, tugging Blaine along with her as she walks away.

“Come on, let’s go see how Mercedes is doing. Artie’s disappeared a long time ago and God only knows what he and Sugar are up to.”

Blaine nods, looking back behind him up at the brothers before he follows her, silently asking Finn to be careful.

Mike and Tina want to go back to Asia, her family was still there, several generations passed and gone. Artie was going to bring Sugar back with him since she was already done with school and job hunting and there was no doubt that Quinn was taking Noah with her, wherever she went.

Why couldn’t Kurt come too? And Blaine?

They could transfer to any college they wanted to. And if the only reason that Kurt wouldn’t be safe was because they didn’t know how Finn could handle being around his brother without wanting to hurt him, tonight was proof that those fears were unfounded.

The only thing she had to worry about now was Jesse. And wherever he was.

She hated the fact that she was essentially running away from the one person who had managed to destroy her life. She wasn’t a coward and Jesse _would_ pay. But like Artie said, live to fight another day. She didn’t want to go chasing after the asshole without knowing what to expect, and Jesse had already proven that he had more than a few tricks up his sleeves, what with blocking her and all.

He was strong, and much older than she was, she needed to have a plan if she wanted to find him. before he found her.

And she couldn’t go after him alone. No doubt by now he’d managed to accrue more dickheads to follow him around, if Santana and Sebastian were anything to go by.

No, if she wants to get rid of Jesse, once and for all, she had to be careful.

* * *

For the first in a long time, she sleeps through the day, Finn lies beside her, listening to music. Her curtains are drawn tight, blocking out the sun as she lays in Finn’s arms, the thrumming of his chest the lullaby that sings her to sleep.

Artie and LeRoy are off settling the last of the arrangements for their departure from Columbus, Quinn is staying with Noah at the hotel and Mercedes’ brothers are visiting her, since the news of her boyfriend’s disappearance, along with that of several other co-eds made the national news. Sugar and Kurt are still at the hotel, as well as the other vampires.

They were packed and ready to go, and after tonight, she and Finn would be able to start a life somewhere new.

Her dreams are easier tonight, Jesse doesn’t haunt them and Finn is right there by her side.

Even asleep, she’s very aware of him, pressed up close to her. His name flitters through her mind, tiny flames of arousal licking through her as she feels his hand pass over hers. His body moves over hers, pressing her into the bed and she can feel herself melting as her name echoes though the darkness in the room.

She wasn’t sure if she was awake or asleep, her body wrapped up in this erotic fantasy. She could feel Finn’s lips and fingers as they float over her skin, his hand warm against her ankle. His touch moves over her sleep shorts, her chest, brushing her hair aside, stroking her cheek.

A lusty haze settles over her mind and her eyes slip open, meeting Finn’s gaze, sensual and hungry. She turns into his body, and he kisses her softly.

Her skin burns where he touches her, moving over her slowly, pushing her clothing aside. His mouth follows his hands, leaving a hot trail of wet kisses from her jaw to her chest. His lips brush over her collarbone, one hand curling around her breast while his lips claim the other.

She whispers his name and his teeth pulls at her nipple, hand sliding across her stomach, over her waist, she gasps and pushes herself into his mouth, his lips enveloping her small breast.

She clutches at his hair, holding his head to her chest while his hands venture lower, nudging her thighs apart, his fingers curling in the wet silkiness between her legs.

She grunts and he chuckles, moving his lips to her other breast while he pushes his palm against her.

“Baby.” She gasps out, rocking her hips against him.

Finn chuckles again, his mouth hot and needy as he moves from one suckling nipple to the other and she moans as she rubs herself against his hand.

“Feels good.”

“I know.” He whispers, his breath warming her skin.

“More.”

Her fingers scrape against his back, eyes squeezed tightly closed as he bites her nipple then swirls his tongue around the swollen peak. She gasps out, her hand fisting in the sheet beside them then moans long and breathy when his hand pushes her legs apart wider, stroking, caressing before slowly slipping a finger deeper and deeper inside her body.

He curses softly as her body responds, clenching around him and her eyes fly open when he pushes another finger to join the first.

She feels him watching her as he moves his fingers and her eyes move slowly to his, the golden orbs shining brightly in the dark room.

She tries to speak, the sound dying on her lips when he suddenly removes his fingers and replaces them with his tongue. She chokes out a groan, her body lifting from off the bed and his hand settles on her hips, holding her still as he laps at her.

She closes her eyes at the intensity rushing through her, fire racing through her veins leaving her unable to breathe, Finn’s tongue licking and teasing as she screams out in release.

Finn pushes himself up over her body, settling in between her thighs, cradling her cheek in his palm as he rubs against her sensitive bundle of her nerves, hot, heavy and throbbing.

She was on fire tingling all over, her entire body glowing bright blue where their skin met.

“Finn, please.” She begs, rocking her hips up into his.

“What do you want Rachel?”

“You. Please, Finn?” She pants, clutching at his chest.

Finn’s hips thrust forward, driving deep with one hard stroke. She cries out, her small hands wrapping around his arm, his body pressing hers into the cool sheets beneath them. He growls roughly, his hand on her hip holding her steady while he keeps thrusting into her, shockwaves rippling through her body and into his.

He drops his mouth onto hers as her hands wound around his chest, swallowing her moan, stealing her breath and giving it back to her.

Finn’s body shook above her, sweat dripping off him, falling slick onto hers and he whispers her name into his kiss.  She felt the raw passion rippling over his skin, the energy swirling around them and pulls her lips from his, offering her neck to him.

Finn’s teeth and lips scrape over her neck, following the path he had traced earlier with his fingers and tongue, his hips pounding into hers. His lips settle over the tempting beat of her heart, nipping and sucking at her skin.

He lifts her in his arms, pulling her down onto him.

“Rachel.”

"Yes.”

She gasps and he groans, licking the sweat from her chest, sinking his teeth deep.

* * *

They leave the darkness of her apartment for the last time when the clock creeps towards two am, walking slowly towards the hotel. It's bittersweet, Finn leaving his home behind. He tells her he's never been outside of Ohio, and he’s excited for the new change, he just doesn’t really want to leave his brother behind.

“Can’t he, like, transfer schools?”

She shrugs under his arm, watching their shadows lengthen and shorten as they move under the streetlights.

Artie had already suggested it. Finn and Kurt, even though they weren’t blood brothers shared a bond too strong for her to just rip them apart like this. She and Quinn had transferred school so many times, it shouldn’t be too hard for them to get Kurt into any university he wanted to study at. With all this time stretching out in front of them, school was a good distraction.

“Don’t worry about it.” She says softly, gripping the front of his shirt as they walked.

May was cool, and all of their stuff was already packed and waiting in the truck LeRoy had rented. Her summer dress flitted in the cool evening breeze and Finn’s fingers were warm on her skin, wrapped around her shoulder.

“We can do it?”

She looks up at him. He seemed so happy at the idea, an innocent smile stretching his face as he watches her.

“I don’t see why we can’t.”

“Cool.” He kisses her hair and squeezes her shoulder, his hand tangling in her hair as they pass by the football field.

“We should go say goodbye.”

She frowns up at him.

“To our field.”

Finn waggles his eyebrows at her, pulling her closer to him as their feet lead them to where they first met.

“I’ll always have fond memories of this place.” He says airily and she snickers.

“That bleacher.” He nods to the bottom left of the stands. “Samarie Brown. Freshman year. Best blowjob ever.”

She pulls away from him, raises an eyebrow. Finn grins widely at her and continues, pointing to the top of the left stands.

“Monica Edwards. Our first winning game of the season, I scored two touchdowns and she rode me all night long.”

OK. Fine, she knows he’s just joking, but this new, teasing Finn is just too much. She has half a mind to track down Samarie and Monica, just because.

“And.” Finn fingers the edge of her hair and she swats his hand away.

“That locker room, right there.” Her eyes follow his fingers where he points to the locker room where she had her first taste of his essence. She shivers as his fingers skate over her arm, hooking them behind her neck, dragging her close to him.

“Is where I fell in love. Went on the best journey my heart could ever take me on.” He runs his fingers over her lips as he stares into her eyes, his own like liquid pools of golden honey, swirling with warmth and promise, holding her with his gaze.

“Oh?”

For some strange reason her voice refuses to work and her legs are rooted to the spot as Finn’s hand brushes over her arms, and they move of their own accord to wrap around his waist.

“Yes.” He whispers. He smiles as he bends to kiss her, his fingers threading through her hair. She melts against him, whimpering as his tongue plunges into her mouth, his fingers warm against her skin.

He pulls away from her, sighing happily. “Sing for me?”

“Huh?” She blinks the haze from her mind, staring at him in surprise.

“Please?” He runs his palms over her arm, his seductive smile gone, replaced with the boyish grin she kind of fell in love with. “I know it’s strange, but, you haven’t really sang in a while.”

She didn’t have anything to sing about.

“I just, kind of miss it, is all.”

His fingers caress her neck gently and she clutches at his shirt. The song playing on the radio at the security post at the entrance to the field filters over to them and she starts humming, watching Finn’s smile get wider.

_Sailing in my head  
You swim my secret oceans  
Of coral blue and red  
Your smell is incense burning  
Your touch is silken yet  
It reaches through my skin  
And moving from within_

They move round slowly, dancing – well, she dances, Finn kind of just shuffles his feet – while she sings. Dawn will be there in about three hours, and then they leave for the airport. They’ve spent less time in Ohio than they’ve ever spent anywhere else but she can’t say that she’ll miss it. As long as she has Finn, the days ahead will be a lot easier to get through.

 She wraps her arms tighter around her boyfriend and he hums while she sings, her fingers knotting through his.

"My, my, my. What a lovely voice you have."

A mixture of rage and fear skitters over her spine and she pulls herself from Finn’s embrace and whirls around, eyes flashing as she glares at the intruder.

Jesse stands proud and overly cocky, hands swinging non-threateningly at his side, several of his cronies lingering in the background. He gives a small smile, inclining his head towards them politely.

"Please, don't stop on my account."

*******

 


End file.
